


Forever and For Always

by meraculas



Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Ignores Comic Continuation, Originally Posted on Twisting the Hellmouth, Post-Chosen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-09
Updated: 2016-03-07
Packaged: 2018-05-05 05:09:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 25,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5362553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meraculas/pseuds/meraculas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Girlfriend rule number one is to never date the others ex. Buffy suddenly finds herself breaking that rule, and Willow's reaction seems ... odd.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline: Post-Chosen (by 5 years). Ignoring comics. Angel: when the gang took down the Inner Circle of the Blackthorn, Wesley lived. Instead of joining the crew in the alley he went to the hospital and called Giles. Giles then used the council to take over the LA branch of WR&H in the chaos. Angel is still CEO, but he's a PI out of the Hyperion again with everyone (including Harmony), but Gunn (still with his lawyer knowledge) is the one who most frequently takes part in WR&H stuff, but the others still use its resources. But basically WR&H's LA branch is now under the Council's power.
> 
> Disclaimer: Buffy and fellow characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. I'm just borrowing them for my own wicked pleasures.

Willow looked up from the book in front of her as Buffy walked into the room. The door slammed shut behind her, splintering not only the door but also the door frame. “Bad date?” She asked her friend already knowing the answer.  
  
So much had changed since the potential slayers had been activated and they left the crater that had been their home. They had lived in that school bus for so long that Xander kept joking about turning the back of the bus into a hostel like room. They had finally moved off the bus when the old thing broke down in the middle of nowhere, or rather the middle of Oklahoma. Amazingly, the bus had broken down near an abandoned barn. They had made sure the place was empty before they resigned themselves from sleeping in the place. And it only smelt somewhat disgusting.  
  
After a long debate of what they were going to do to get out of the place. There was literally no town, city, village, or hamlet around for miles. Giles made a phone call on the one still working cell phone and bought the barn; mainly because he felt bad about them having been using it without cause, but also because someone now living there might help get them some help. Sure enough, a realtor came out and she gave Buffy, Dawn, and Andrew a drive into the nearest town, which was a full two and a half hour drive away. They returned a little while later with new clothes for everyone, food, some other living necessities, and two new working, though used, vehicles.  
  
That was the start of the new Watcher’s Council, or NIWC for short.  
  
It took a full year to transform that barn into their offices and training facility. It took longer than that for Xander to build a building for everyone to live in from nothing. He complained about it often enough, but everyone knew he loved getting to do it. There had originally only been one residential building, but as more people started arriving, Xander built another one, this new one as a male dormitory. Names were eventually given to the two dormitories and the main office building. The females lived in the Anya Jenkins House, while the men lived in the Merrick House.  
  
Robin took a small group of new slayers to the Hellmouth in Cleveland after the first few months in Oklahoma. That separation had been hard on Faith at first, but she realized, after everyone else, that they were never going to work out; which was sad, because everyone had been rooting for them, but Robin knew it first and had told her, but Faith was stubborn and it took her longer to finally admit that it was true.  
  
Now, five years after their little community had sprung up, more buildings had come with it. The barn that had started it all now served solely as an office building for the senior members of the council – Giles (the undisputed and by unanimous vote, head of the council), Buffy, Xander, Willow, Faith, Dawn, Robin (when he was around) and by some strange occurrence Andrew. There was now a vast library, a mess hall, a gym, a school house, the senior members and some of the other residence had their own separate homes.  
  
The place had no official name, but they’d heard people passing by and some of the newer residence called the place Fellowship, after the famous fellowship from the Lord of the Rings series by J.R.R. Tolkien, based on Faith of all people’s theory it was because they represented a kind of spirit and hope not usually seen in man. And so the unofficial – to all but the world around them – name for their community was Fellowship.  
  
So when Buffy slammed the door to Willow’s office and slumped rather indignantly into the chair across from her, Willow felt a little sorry for her friend, but mostly proud. After everything that had happened over the years, Buffy finally had a normal-ish life, but she somehow still managed to make a bad date seem like the apocalypse.  
  
“Of course it was a bad date, why I ever thought going out with the guy that supplies us with cheese was ever a good idea is completely lost on me.” Buffy complained.  
  
“Well so long as we still get cheese when this is over, everything is fine.” Willow reminded her friend, and since when did their food become her problem, that was Andrew’s.  
  
“You sound like Andrew.” Buffy whined as she started to play with the crystal lamp on her desk.  
  
“I know, make it stop.” Willow commented in a whine. She immediately sobered up, “Riley was in here yesterday, he says that Sam’s doing well, and so is the baby. He’s just annoyed that she wants to get back to work so soon.”  
  
“We need them; they’re able to give the slayers, and the watchers, valuable information.”  
  
“Not to mention that thanks to Riley we’re able to get cheap weapons and government funding.”  
  
“How he managed to get the weapons we need is still a mystery.” Buffy inserted.  
  
“That and how he can get the government to supply us with money and resources to keep living, while they practically don’t even know we exist.”  
  
“Why did I break up with him?” Buffy whined.  
  
“Because of many, many things, and I like Sam.”  
  
“I like Sam too, she is like my hero. Smart, tough, stylish, and she has a normal life!”  
  
“We all envy her.” Willow sighed admitting the truth. Since Riley and Sam moved to the community, and they joined the ranks of senior council members, everyone envied Sam. But that never gained her any enemies, which made people even more envious of her.  
  
“Why can’t I have what she has, I want that, hell, I deserve that.”  
  
“I know you do, sweetie, want some chocolate?” Willow asked pulling open her desk drawer.  
  
“You are not allowed sugar; you know that, God, Willow, am I going to have to send Xander in here to search the place again?”  
  
“I got it today, just for you, so no.” Please don’t send Xander in, he’d find her secret mars bar stash, and screw caffeine babbling, she needs her mars bars.  
  
“Alright, fine.” Buffy humphed and Willow handed her the Belgium imported chocolate.  
  
“Oh, Giles wants to know what you think about making Oz a member of the senior council.” Willow informed her, she really wanted to spend more girl time with Buffy, but she had so much work to do.  
  
“Why would we need too? Isn’t Oz still someplace in the Himalayas or something like that for his spiritual quest thing?”  
  
“No, we went over this the other day, Graham found Oz in New Zealand and managed to convince - or possibly blackmail, he never actually said which - him to come here and help us.” Willow reminded Buffy. Why couldn’t Buffy remember these things?  
  
“Is Graham going to be joining us as well?”  
  
“I don’t think so, but I’m sure that you could call him and ask.”  
  
“Right, it’s just that he’s hardly ever here and he’s such a novelty concept for me still.” Buffy commented referring to the revelation everyone had experienced last year.  
  
Graham, during one of his many infrequent and unscheduled visits, had nearly been killed in a demon attack. That, while distressing, had not been the earth shattering news that everyone received, instead it was that the tests run on Graham to make sure none of the demon blood had infected him with something revealed. Graham Miller was Buffy and Dawn’s older half-brother. Seems Hank Summers had failed sex-Ed just four months prior to his marriage to Joyce.  
  
Sighing, Buffy asked “Alright, so when does Oz get in?”  
  
“Thirty minutes ago.”  
  
“Right, well Oz was around back in Sunnydale and he helped with a number of big things and apparently he’s grown, and you want him here, right, so sure.”  
  
“Alright, I’ll let Giles know.” Willow said as she picked up her phone, hit the button to connect her with Giles and waited for him to answer. “Buffy says ‘yeah’ to the Oz vote.”  
  
“Alright, thank you Willow, I’ll let Oz know.” Giles said on the other end.  
  
“Oh, is Oz there with you?”  
  
“Yes he is shall I put this on speaker?” Giles asked she could almost picture Giles pinching the bridge of his nose. He hates their office phones.  
  
“No, I think that’s alright.” Willow said before saying goodbye.  
  
“So Oz is with Giles, where is he going to be staying?” Buffy asked her mouth full of chocolate.  
  
“Dawn volunteered your house.”  
  
“I’ll kill her. She doesn’t have the right, especially now that she’s staying in the Anya House.”  
  
“Temporarily” she reminded her, “and you do have extra room, even if Dawn was still there.”  
  
“Nothing against your ex Wills, but do I really have to?”  
  
“Yes you do and you will like it.” Willow told her, resolve face firmly in place.  
  
Buffy crossed her arms indignantly across her chest and grumbled, “Fine.”  
  
“Oz really isn’t that bad.”  
  
“I’m glad you forgave him Will, but, still, no offense, but I don’t want a guy who could change into a wolf and savage me while I’m asleep in my house.” That, at Buffy’s request, had been built exactly like her home in Sunnydale.  
  
“Oz is good, and you never had a problem with him before.” Willow reminded her friend. They had all gotten over and forgiven Oz a long time ago. And no one could hate him after he showed up in Sunnydale following Buffy’s second death or after the letter he sent after her resurrection. They had kept in touch after that with regular postcards.  
  
“I know it’s just-”  
  
“You don’t want a werewolf around while you try and catch up to Sam. Buffy, unless you get pregnant tomorrow and have triplets you aren’t likely to catch up to Sam anytime soon.”  
  
“I’m not trying to catch up to Sam.”  
  
“Good because Dawn sent a text right before you came in, she dropped Oz’s stuff off at your house already.”  
  
“Great” Buffy muttered, “so I should get home and clean the place real fast, huh.”  
  
“Probably, because I think you might have a demon living in your front closet.” Willow joked as Buffy left the office.  
  
Once the door closed behind the short blonde, Willow looked at her desk. She took in the many open files on her two computers and at all the files and books on her desk and the floor around it. She heaved a sigh then opened a hidden drawer and pulled out a mars. She would require some help if she was going to tackle her next project.


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So as of now, up to chapter eight of this tale has been posted on Twisting the Hellmouth. I'll be posting daily until I've caught up to there after that I don't have a posting schedule because I don't have this story finished yet.

          It was common knowledge around Fellowship that Buffy had a man living in her house. Not that there had been any way of hiding the truth, it had been also been common knowledge that Daniel Osbourne was coming as well. Samantha Finn smiled to herself as she looked out her front window towards Buffy’s house.

          She liked Buffy. The blonde had helped her husband become the man that she had married and she would always be grateful for that. Then there was the fact that one of her husband’s best friends, and the man that had been Riley’s best man at their wedding, turned out to be Buffy’s older brother.

          Hearing her newborn son wake up from his nap and start crying, she pulled away from the window and turned to find Willow already holding baby Luke. She accepted the offered child and began rocking him gently. Three under three was something some people, including herself, could be impressed with – but it was also very hard to manage.

          “How are Tabitha and Dean handling the new one?” Willow asked watching Tabitha playing on the floor, while her younger brother slept under the coffee table. Why Dean only fell asleep under there was something no one understood.

          Sam smiled, motherly warmth filling her as she answered, “Tabitha seems to enjoy it, but Dean doesn’t seem to have noticed.”

          “I’m sure that he will in time.” Willow commented.

          “Like Graham seems to remember that he actually has a family now?” Sam asked, still not liking how her long time friend and comrade, was handling the newfound information.

          “You kind of have to feel for him.” Willow stated calmly, “I mean he just learned that his mother worked as a street-corner hooker before she worked in that casino, and that his father was supposed to get married to another woman in four months. Who was the worse parent?”

          “All valid, but he’s avoiding the problem, not coming to terms with it.” She countered a little too loudly as Dean began to stir from where he slept.

          “Maybe this is his way of dealing with it. You saw how Buffy and Dawn handled the information.” Willow pointed out.

          Buffy had gone into shock over the information, while Dawn had flown into a fit and caused a large amount of damage to their home. Graham, when he finally woke up from his medically induced coma, had seemed to handle to information fairly well, he’d acted as if he had been told that a new grocery store was opening; but the day that he was released from their med lab, he left. He’d only actually returned once since learning the truth about his family, and that had been while Buffy was in Rome playing girlfriend, again, with the Immortal and Dawn was in Scotland doing some research.

          Sam sighed before submitting to the truth that Willow presented, “Alright, maybe so, and you _did_ see the way he reacted to hearing just _where_ Buffy was.”

          Willow laughed, “I think his reaction had more to do with who she was with than where she was.”

          Sam smiled, “So what are we going to do about our other little thing?”

          “Well Dawn says that they seem to be doing alright, but she also said that it could just be because there was company and they wanted to appear civil.” Willow informed her.

          “Right, so what are _we_ going to do?”

          “I don’t know, but Dawn says that she might be moving back into the house soon, seems Vi is starting to get on her nerves.”

          “How, I thought that they were best friends?” Sam stated shocked.

          Willow shrugged her shoulders, “I don’t know, maybe living together got to be too much.”

          “Or maybe it was Andrew that got on her nerves.” She supplied knowingly.

          They both laughed realizing that that was likely the reason. Andrew and Vi were inseparable. As Vi liked to remind people when someone threatened harm to the blonde, ‘he’s my gay, get your own to beat up.’ Andrew and Vi’s odd relationship had gotten in the way of their personal lives on more than one occasion. Neither was likely going to be able to quit the other. They were Fellowship’s own Will and Grace.

          “Those two will end up alone together.” Sam said as her laughter subsided.

          “Like those two old gossips sitting on their front porch knitting.” Willow added, “Like in those movies set in country side villages.”

          “Yup, maybe we should get them a cat or two for company.” She suggested.

          “After we finish dealing with our other project.” Willow informed her with an all together too mischievous look in her eyes.


	3. Chapter Three

          Dawn knew her sister was a smart cookie, so when Buffy cornered her three months after Oz had moved into their house and demanded to know what was going on, Dawn had to quickly think of something. Because telling her older sister the truth would only lead to death, particularly _her_ death. And that was something Dawn really hoped to avoid.

          “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Buffy.” Dawn answered with a shrug, praying that the blonde didn’t see through the lie.

          “Right, so you have no idea why Oz hasn’t been able to find any other place to stay at other than ours?” Buffy asked still demanding answers.

          “Exactly, and he hasn’t exactly given an answer as to how long he would be staying, so we can’t really build a place for him.” Dawn reminded her. Even in Oz-speak he remained vague about his long term plans.

          “And he still hasn’t answered any of my questions about Graham!” Buffy whined. “I mean, Graham clearly said something to get the unmovable Oz to come here, and is it really too much to want to know how my brother was doing?”

          It amazed Dawn, even after have grown up with the woman, how easily Buffy’s mind changed course. One minute, like now, she could be grousing and accusing her sister of plotting something, to whining about their brother avoiding them. Which Dawn hated as well.

          “Graham was always very persuasive, so maybe he said something to keep Oz quiet – or quieter than normal.” Dawn offered.

          Buffy gave her one of her patented Slayer glares, “Nothing can persuade Oz to do anything he doesn’t want to do.”

          Dawn smiled at the truth in the determined statement. “But we just have to be patient, eventually Graham will come back and we can talk. And eventually Oz will let us know what he is planning; just like he will eventually find a place that isn’t ours.”

          “Oh so it’s our place again?” Buffy countered with a hint of anger in her voice.

          “I told you that I was going to be moving back.” She informed her sister both annoyed and angry.

          “Then we really need to get Oz to move out.”

          “Why?”

          “We can’t have a guy living in the house with us.” Buffy informed her as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

          “Yes we can, and we’ve done it before. You just have to make sure that you don’t walk around naked.” She shot back, their casual conversation outside the dining hall beginning to escalate to an argument. “But I kind of hope that you haven’t been still doing that.”

          “I haven’t been.”

          “Good.” Dawn shot back.

          “But there was that incident.” Someone said causing both sisters to jump in shock.

          “Oz!” Buffy half screeched half cried. For his part, the stoic werewolf remained calm, but knowing the other man, Dawn figured he was laughing on the inside. “How long have you been standing there?”

          Oz shrugged before answering, “Graham saying something to keep me quiet.”

          Buffy almost seemed to shrink in on herself as everything discussed following that came back to her, “Really, that long?” she asked him weakly.

          Oz simply nodded.

          “Well, I’m going to go get my bags so that Vi isn’t alone in moving me back home.” She informed the pair, “Nice to see you again Oz.”

          Once she was certain she was out of ear shot, she pulled out her cell phone and dialled Willow’s office number. After two rings, the red head picked up her phone, “Hey, what’s going on?”

          “Depends on how you look at it.” She answered cryptically, “Buffy might have said a few things about Oz without knowing he was listening, but then from what little I could see, he seemed to think at least some of it was a compliment.”

          “What did she say?”

          “That nothing could make him do what he didn’t want to. That he needed to leave the house.” She relayed, “But then Oz said something about their having been an ‘incident’ when I mentioned Buffy’s tendency to walk around naked.”

          “Ooh, we need to know more about that.” Willow stated, “I wonder if Sam can find anything out.”

          “Well I’m moving back in either tonight or tomorrow so we’ll be able to learn more about what’s going on inside the house.”

          “Good, well get back to packing.” Willow instructed, “And thanks for the update, I need to get back to work.”

          With that, they both ended the call. Dawn smiled to herself as she walked off towards the Anya Jenkins building and the room she had been sharing with Vi. Things seemed to be going well, but once she moved back home, they would know exactly how their plan was progressing.


	4. Chapter Four

          Buffy knew that something was going on. She might play at being an airhead, but she wasn’t, except when it came to certain things; and her friend’s behaviour was not one of them.

          Dawn had moved her stuff back into the house four days ago, and despite living there again, she spent most of her time at Vi or Andrew’s dorms. Not that she’d have to divide time for much longer, Xander was almost finished building a house for Vi and Andrew to share. Either way, Buffy knew that between her sister and her friend’s behaviour something was up.

          Oz was out buying groceries when Willow arrived, and Buffy had planned for Oz to be absent when she tore into his ex-girlfriend – even if they had patched everything up. Turning on Willow before the front door had even finished closing behind the red head, Buffy demanded to know what was going on.

          “I have no idea what you are talking about.” Willow stated calmly.

          “That’s the same bullshit Dawn gave me a few days ago, and I want answers. Why do I get the feeling that the two of you are cooking up some sort of plan?” She ranted.

          “I don’t know Buff, because we aren’t up to anything. I swear, if we were I’d even let you put me in a frog tank for a whole day. See, I can’t be lying.” Willow pleaded with her.

          She sighed, her arms crossed in front of her chest before giving in, “Fine, but you guys have both been acting weird.”

          “I don’t know about Dawn, but I will admit that I’ve been trying to convince Graham to come visit.”

          “So you have been cooking something up!” Buffy cried out.

          “Not really, I said that I was trying, and the man is really stubborn.”

          Buffy’s pain at hearing that wasn’t hidden from her friend. She remembered, even if it was a false memory, having hoped that she’d have a baby brother instead of a baby sister. But having a big brother was in some ways cooler than having a little one, and now that big brother didn’t want anything to do with her and it was all really unfair. She felt like stamping her foot in irritation whenever she thought of his childish behaviour.

          “Had you heard that he’d come by while you stood in for your double in Italy with the Immortal?” Willow asked cautiously.

          “Yeah, he even waited until Dawn had done to Scotland to help divert a possible country sized Apocalypse.” She humphed.

          “Well he seemed worried that you were with the Immortal, so one of my evidentially failed methods was to try and make him think you were in trouble.” Willow explained, “He still seems to care, it’s just like he doesn’t know what to do about anything.”

          “Maybe, but Dawn and I don’t either. It’d just be really nice if we could all sit down and try and figure this out together.” She whined.

          “Well, I’ll keep working on it.” Willow assured her. “So I was talking to Riley – mainly to see if he could help find a reason to get Graham to visit – and he mentioned that Sam had invited you, Dawn, and Oz to dinner tonight. Are you going?”

          “Yuppers, as much as I envy Sam I just love seeing those cutie-pies of hers.” She said, her mind beginning to think about how many kids she wanted to have and what they might look like and who their father might be. She always saw them with strawberry blonde hair and green eyes.

          She was pulled out her trance when Willow had to shake her by the knee. “I’m sorry what were you saying?” She asked.

          Willow smiled as she asked carefully, “I wasn’t, and you just looked like you were lost in space or something. Everything alright over in Buffy-world?”

          Buffy nodded before she finally answered, she was still mesmerized by the sight of her imaginary offspring running around the living room, “Yeah I’m fine just decided to go visit Obi-Wan Kenobi. Back when he was a padawan, though, he was a whole lot sexier then. Maybe it was the short hair, or the brown hair, or maybe the lack of beard, or maybe it was all three.” She mused in true Buffy fashion.

          “Well I’m glad that no serious thought was occurring, we wouldn’t want you to get hurt.” Willow joked just as the front door opened.

          Smiling, they rose to help Oz bring in the groceries. Buffy smiled despite herself when she noticed he had purchased her favourite kind of salad, even though she informed him not to. Evil werewolf.

 

          Four hours later, they met Dawn outside of Sam and Riley’s house, which was across the street, and walked up the driveway together. After a few minutes of quick debate, Dawn knocked on the door. Someone started crying inside, and Buffy inwardly cringed. That was one thing she didn’t want from her kids, when she eventually had some.

          They heard Riley trying to soothe whichever of their kids it was, even as they saw him come to answer the door through the window. He gave them a tired looking smile as he wordlessly waved them inside. Good, despite the fact that the only vampires to ever visit Fellowship were Angel, Spike, and Harmony, and on that one occasion Drusilla, everyone still knew not to give a verbal invitation.

          “Riley, Luke needs his diaper changed, can you do that please?” Sam called out from wherever she was. “And his guys, dinner should be ready in a few minutes!”

          Buffy watched her ex hang his head and sigh before tiredly calling back that he would. He was just about to turn away from them when she asked which of the kids was crying. Smiling, Buffy bounced into the living room and scoped Tabitha up into her arms before she started swinging her around. The toddler, who would turn 3 next week, quickly stopped crying and began laughing.

          She saw Dawn head for the kitchen out of the corner of her eye, but ignored her weird sister, unless she planned to try her thieving ways again. They had mostly broken Dawn of that after the Sweets debacle, but every so often she would pick it up again. To keep herself sharp, as she liked to claim. Andrew always laughed it off, even though he was almost always her target, and said that things could get boring around here and they needed the excitement.

          When Riley returned, she handed Tabitha over to him before taking a seat on the couch next to Oz. Riley sat his only daughter on his shoulders before taking a seat as well, “So how have things been working out for the two of you?”

          She caught Oz raise a brow before he shrugged – Oz speak for ‘why do you ask, but it’s alright.’ She suddenly realized that even back in Sunnydale she hadn’t been that good at deciphering his unique language, maybe she had been spending too much time with the stoic werewolf.

          Mentally shaking herself, she answered the question since Riley wasn’t going to get much more of a response from Oz, “It’s alright I guess.”

          Riley broke into a goofy grin as he began to ask something only for Sam to call out, “Why do you say that?” Riley rolled his eyes but indicated that he was going to ask something similar with a wave of his hand.

          “There was an incident or two near the start, but I think we’ve got it ironed out now.” She answered with a casual and nonchalant shrug.

          Sam finally emerged from the kitchen, Dawn close behind, “What are these ‘incidents’?” Sam asked slightly concerned.

          “Nothing big, just enough to probably scar Oz for life, though.” She joked, elbowing the werewolf that was noticeable trying to _not_ smile. He did manage to shake his head, whether it was in denial of her statement or exasperation, Buffy wasn’t sure though.

          “What happened?” Dawn asked intrigued.

          “I just forgot that we had company.” She explained, “I had my robe on but there was some other stuff that was kind of embarrassing.”

          “Towel the second time.” Oz added his smile breaking though.

          “Headphones while shaving?” Dawn asked exasperated. Oz nodded, “At least she had something on, though. Last time we had a male in the place, Andrew wasn’t so lucky.”

          Everyone, even the stoic Oz, broke out laughing at that. Once they had calmed down, Sam told them that dinner was ready, and they all filed into the dining room.

          Later that night, as Buffy was sleeping, she kept dreaming about what it would be like to finally have the sort of family that Sam did. Except in her dream, she had her sister and even her older brother gathered around the dinner table. A toddler with strawberry blonde hair sat in a highchair as she tried to feed it some mashed potatoes. As someone wordlessly approached her from behind, she turned to accept the just woken infant as the father kissed her. She woke up right after Oz’s lips left hers.


	5. Chapter Five

          Still confused by her dream, Buffy threw her covers off and decided to have a late night snack. All of that despite the fact that she had eaten so much at Sam’s that she still felt bloated. Padding quietly down the carpeted stairs, she crept towards the kitchen only to shriek when someone spoke.

          With a hand over her racing heart, she turned towards Oz and demanded to know what he was doing. Even in the darkness she saw him shrug before he echoed her question.

          Glaring at the man, while still trying to slow her heart rate, she stated, “I needed something to eat.”

          She wasn’t sure what his silent response was because the blackness that filled the house consumed it, but she brushed past him into the kitchen. She paid the werewolf no attention, as she threw the fridge door open and began looking for something to make a sandwich with. Glaring at the half empty thing, particularly since she knew Oz had done groceries earlier today, or yesterday, she slammed it shut.

          “Counter.” Oz informed her easily. She spun to glare at him before turning to the counter and finding everything to make a sandwich. Mayo, bread, lettuce, mustard, and deli mock chicken.

          She quickly made her meal and then dove into it. She was in the middle of making a second when she informed the man watching silently to shut up. After taking a bite out of the second sandwich, she turned to face the ginger haired werewolf and asked him what he was doing down here, again.

          “Full moon tomorrow.” He answered simply, “I can control the change, but I get antsy.”

          Buffy paused at hearing the explanation and began to wonder if he had spent the last three full moon cycles pacing the house. “So do you always pace?” She found herself asking. Damn verbal controls.

          She almost thought that Oz had smiled, but then she couldn’t be sure in the darkness. On a scale of good to bad, Oz’s werewolf night sight was a hell of a lot better than hers, just like his nose was better than hers. “No.” He answered simply.

          Still chewing another mouthful she asked, “Then what do you do?”

          “I’ve gotten very good at beating myself in scrabble.” He informed her ever as coolly he told her where to find the stuff for her sandwich.

          “Well at least you haven’t lost any of those games.” She joked.

          “There was one.”

          Buffy did a double take and nearly choked on her sandwich. Did Oz just make a joke? She couldn’t be sure since he said it so calmly. She narrowed her eyes at him and looked him over very carefully, trying to figure out if was joking or not.

          “It was in Gaelic.” He finally told her as he stepped around her and began making a sandwich for himself.

          “You speak Gaelic?”

          He shrugged, never looking away from his work, “My mother was Irish.”

          Nodding, Buffy took another bite, “Explains the hair colour. So where were your parents during high school?” She asked. She knew why Willow’s parents were hardly ever around, but Oz’s were absent even more than his ex’s.

          “Dead.”

          Again, Buffy nearly choked on her sandwich. How could he be so cool about his parent’s being dead?

          “How?”

          “Dad killed himself and mom said she was going to become a tree.”

          “So she’s not dead?” Buffy asked confused.

          Oz shrugged as he swallowed a bit of his sandwich, “Don’t know. She left after that and no one has seen her since.”

          “So your dad killed himself, your mom – for all you know – is either dead or Drusilla level crazy, and you’re a werewolf. Wow that might be more screwed up than my family.” Buffy informed him amazed.

          “You should hear how dad killed himself.”

          “Okay, how?”

          “Drowned in a vat of chocolate.”

          “Okay, you have got to be joking.” Buffy cried out through her laughter.

          “No, he worked at a chocolate factory, had a bad day, drank too much, and decided to drown himself.” Oz told her calmly.

          “It must have been a very bad day then, but it sounds like he could have died happy.” She stated, “I know that if I drowned in a vat of chocolate I would have died happy.”

          “He was co-owner of the factory, but the partners strong armed him out, he was told that he didn’t have to come in again that day.” Oz informed her a little sadly.

          Her laughter subsided immediately, “I’m so sorry Oz.”

          He shrugged. After several minutes of them eating in silence he finally said, “The factory is the one where the band candy came from.”

          Buffy had to spit out the part of her sandwich she was chewing on, because she knew she’d choke. “Your dad’s old factory was the source of that mayhem?”

          The werewolf nodded.

          “What was the likelihood it would have happened if he was still there?”

          “How determined was Ethan?” Oz countered.

          Sighing, she realized that the bastards responsible for Oz’s dad taking his life couldn’t be blamed for the band candy, but she’d still see if Willow knew about what happened to Oz’s father. Maybe she could see about Riley or Angel doing something to make sure those idiots suffered, if of course they had escaped Sunnydale. If not, then they deserved what happened to them.

          “You said you know Gaelic, can you say something in it?” She asked curious.

          “Not really, I understand it and can read it, but speaking isn’t my strong point.”

          “In any language it seems then.” She joked. Oz glared at her, which was kind of funny and very scary to see. An Oz glare was on par with one of Willow’s or a Giles/Ripper's glares, and only partially because you never expected him to know how to glare.

          They resumed their silent eating until Buffy asked, “How’s Jordy doing?”

          “Good, he’s in LA.”

          “Can he control himself, err, the wolf?” Buffy asked trying to correct to question.

          “For the most part.” Oz replied before elaborating, “He has trouble at the full moon, but he manages well enough.”

          “Do Angel and the gang know about Jordy being there?”

          Oz nodded, “He told Wesley and Connor’s at Sanford as well.”

          “So Jordy’s at Sanford?”

          “Starts in the fall.”

          “I thought Connor had dropped out after his memories came back.” Buffy mused trying to remember everything Wesley had told them during his last visit.

          “Seems he did but after everything settled down he enrolled again.”

          “Right and he changed his major from sports medicine to anthropology.” Buffy exclaimed remembering now. “Okay, so there should be someone looking out for him in case anything happens, that’s good.”

          Oz nodded before he began putting the stuff from their sandwiches away. Buffy watched as he cleaned up, the memory of her dream resurfacing. She couldn’t stop herself from smiling, at the memory, and watching how accustomed Oz had become with the house. Of course it was exactly like the one she and Dawn had lived in back in Sunnydale, and Oz had been there several times as well. But it was - she wasn’t sure of how to describe it. Heart-warming maybe, but it did something to her as she watched him.

          “I’m glad I can say you’re my friend Oz.” She informed him with a smile.

          The werewolf paused in his wiping the counter and turned to look at her, confusion in his eyes. “So am I.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Should add: The idea for Oz's dad came an episode of CSI and the idea for Oz's mom came from The Almighty Johnsons.


	6. Chapter Six

          Buffy eventually managed to get back to sleep after her conversation with Oz, which was kind of weird since he actually talked. She had never figured Oz knew so many words. Or rather that he could use so many words.

          Over the next couple of days, she found herself more aware of Oz, not in a creepy sense, but she just seemed to know if he was nearby. And that was exceedingly creepy.

          The night after their conversation in the kitchen, she had the same dream, only it seemed to have more detail. She woke up after a certain point, and after lying on her back for a few minutes remembered one of the many things Oz actually said the night before. Looking out her window, she found his statement about the full moon to be true. But then she really should have taken his word.

          With a slight smile, she pulled on her robe and slipped her feet into her fuzzy blue slippers before padding down the stairs. She didn’t want to be too quiet; sneaking up on an antsy werewolf during the full moon was a recipe for disaster. But, being a slayer, she had trouble making noise, and she didn’t want to wake Dawn.

          She found Oz, lying on the couch, an arm thrown over his eyes, and one of his legs lightly tapping the floor. Still not sure if he knew she was there, Buffy tried to figure out a way to enter the room without startling him when he nearly gave her a heart attack.

          “You can sit down; I’m not going to kill you.” He informed her almost as if he weren’t even speaking.

          “Thanks for the reassurance, it’s just that I didn’t want to startle you and I couldn’t sleep again.” She explained as she took a seat on the couch where Oz’s legs had been.

          “Same.” He muttered, almost as if he were frustrated with something.

          Buffy didn’t want to ask about his tone, seeing as it might be something Oz didn’t want to talk about, but also because of the whole ‘don’t piss off the agitated werewolf’ policy. Still not entirely sure what to make of Oz’s frustration, she sat next to her house guest in silence.

          Oz watched her, Buffy knew that not because she could see him watching her, or feel his gaze. No she just _knew_ that he was watching her, just like she had known all day where he was in relation to her position. Very creepy.

          “Something on your mind?” He finally asked.

          Surprised by the question, Buffy turned to face him, “No, why?”

          She thought she caught the ghost of a smile before Oz replied, “Just a feeling.”

          “Right, and that’s not weird at all.” She commented dryly and with a weak laugh. “But no, not really at least. I’ve just been having this weird dream over and over again and, I don’t know ...” She explained to him lamely.

          She looked over to find him nodding, “Believe me, I know.” He finally muttered.

          They remained sitting in silence for several more minutes. But Buffy hardly noticed; she was too busy trying to figure out what seemed to have Oz so distracted. Not that she had expected much in the way of conversation with him.

          Her thoughts remained on her confusing house guest until she felt a hand on her knee, “You’re agitated.”

          She looked up at him distracted by the warmth she felt spread from his hand over her body that his touch caused. “Hmm, what was that?” She finally asked after having to mentally shake herself.

          “You’re agitated, and not to be rude, but it’s not helping too much on this side.” He told her, furrowing his brow as he said it.

          “Oh my God, I am so sorry. Was I projecting or something?”

          She caught the slightest ghost of a smile as he shook his head, “No, but I could feel it.”

          “Again with the creepy,” She muttered. Louder she said, “Maybe you should talk to Giles about it.”

          “It’s probably just the full moon, and I haven’t changed in nearly four months.”

          “Is that bad?”

          “Think of a soda can, shake it too long ...” He mimed the explosion with his hands, “Can’t keep the wolf in forever.”

          “Oh,” She mumbled trying to understand everything that Oz was saying. And again that he was actually talking.

          With the same ghost of a smile, he asked, “You have no idea what I’m saying, do you?”

          “No, I think I get it, it’s just not something I thought about.”

          “So it’ll take a while to understand.” Oz said nonchalantly.

          Buffy turned to glare at him, realizing that he had just made a joke; and one about her intelligence. “Oh this is war, buster.” She informed him with a mock glare as she moved to tackle him against the arm of the couch.

          Oz defended himself well enough, but Buffy still managed to corner him against the arm. She had him pinned; her hands on his shoulders keeping him down, but the look of cool seriousness on his face troubled her. Before she had much time to think about it, he started tickling her sides. Shrieking in surprise and laughter she was suddenly on her own back against the opposite arm of the couch. Trying to get away from the older werewolf, she rolled to one side only to bump her nose against the back of the couch. Rolling again, she fell onto the floor with a thud and an ‘ouch.’

          Raising an arm over her head as she pushed her face out of the floor with the other, she informed her enemy combatant, “I’m okay.”

          Oz helped her back onto the couch and they returned to sitting in silence, well they sat not saying anything because they were too busy laughing and then trying to find their breath. Once they were both settled, silence filled the room.

          “So the whole soda analogy, how long do you think you have before you, I don’t know ... explode?” Buffy finally asked breaking the slightly awkward silence.

          Oz shrugged in response. Buffy guessed he had used up his quota of words for the time being.

          Nodding unsure of what else to say, she returned to the awkward silence. She tried to find something that might start another conversation, because despite Oz’s seeming dislike for talking, she enjoyed their conversations. He was easy to talk to.

          “The door to the basement is reinforced steel, and the lock is on the outside, so if you want you can change tomorrow night down there.” She finally suggested.

          Oz turned to look at her, confusion clearly written across his face.

          “Long story, but it involves demon interrogation.” She answered in response to his unasked question. He nodded in response, “I’ll let you think about it, but the offer is always open.”

          The silence returned and Buffy began fidgeting, trying to think of something to say to break it. She didn’t know why she was so antsy or against the silence, but she wanted something to say.

          “How are you enjoying the place so far?” She asked him, turning to face him completely, her legs folded beneath her Indian style.

          Oz sighed before answering, “It’s good, I haven’t had to do anything strenuous beyond a few grocery runs.”

          “Hey, you need to earn your keep if you want to stay in this house.” She said defending herself.

          “It’s fine.” He informed her, “I had a couple of scares the first few days I was here, but nothing too bad since.”

          “I apologized both times, even though it wasn’t my fault.” Buffy cried indignantly.

          “Close the door.” Oz informed her simply.

          Buffy shook her head before fixing him with a serious look and asking, “How did Graham get you to come here? I mean, we’ve asked and invited several times, and then Graham finds you and suddenly you decide to come visit. What did he say?”

          Oz shrugged before asking, “What makes you think it wasn’t my decision?”

          “So you just decided after seeing an old SunnyHell face, one you hardly even knew, that you wanted to come down here?” Buffy asked not believing him.

          Again Oz shrugged, “Maybe.”

          “Still not buying it.”

          “Still not selling anything.”

          Buffy glared at him as she lightly hit his arm. Ten seconds later, Oz had her again pinned against the arm of the couch while tickling her.

          Both were completely unaware of the fact that they had a blurry eyed audience that was dialling a number on her cell phone. When the other line was answered in a groggy, sleep evident tone, Dawn informed one of her co-conspirators, “its working.”

          Willow, still half asleep asked, “What’s working?”

          Rolling her eyes at the red head’s question, elaborated, “The spell, its working.”

          Willow was suddenly very awake, “It is, already? Did you put too much of the potion into their food?”

          Hurt at the accusation, Dawn hotly replied, “No I did not, besides, Sam was the one putting it on their food.”

          “Oh, then maybe you miscalculated the ingredients.”

          “Either way, it’s working. I just thought you would like to know.” Dawn stated frustrated with the accusations.

          “Even though it was at five in the morning, I appreciate it. Now go back to bed Dawn.” Willow informed her friend.

          The brunette sighed, “I wish I could, but Buffy and Oz are having a tickle fight, that oh, yeah, just became a pillow fight.”

          “Silencing spell. Night.” Willow suggested before hanging up.


	7. Chapter Seven

          He woke slowly, finding himself on something hard and cold. Rolling over, Oz slowly opened his eyes and found himself in a vaguely familiar basement, but he knew he couldn’t be back in Sunnydale, the place had been destroyed. He pushed himself up onto his elbows and looked around Buffy’s basement some more. The washer and dryer where in the exact same place they had been when he had looked after Dawn just days after Angel had become Angelus. The day before he had found out that his then girlfriend fought the creatures of the night.

          If he could go back to when things were as simple as they were that very day ... he didn’t know what he would do. Would he let things play out the same way or would he try and change them? Dawn had been a pain in the ass, and he had called her a demon a few times, but they had been normal.

          Sighing, he ran a hand through his hair trying to figure out how he got to where he currently was, not philosophically, but literally. How had he come to be in Buffy’s old basement?

          He looked around again, and finally noticed why he was cold. Heaving an exasperated sigh, and at his own actions, he looked around for his clothes. Finally locating them inside the dryer – and still a little warm – he dressed quickly and headed up the steps to the door, which was locked, from the outside. Great.

          He knocked on the wooden door, surprised when he heard the tell tale sound of steel instead of the hard knock of wood. Examining the closed passageway in front of him, he realized that the door actually _was_ steel; it was only painted to look _exactly_ like wood.

          He heard something unlock on the other side, and then another lock opening followed by three more before the door finally opened and a bright eyed Buffy greeted him. Seeing her dressed in a pair of shorts and an over sized t-shirt that all but covered the shorts, he was reminded that the house he was in wasn’t located in the destroyed Sunnydale but instead in Fellowship. He ever so slightly shook his head at his idiocy and nodded politely to the petite blonde as he passed her.

          “How was your night?” She asked brightly as she walked off to the kitchen.

          Following her, he tried to ignore the urge to watch her swaying hips and replied with a casual shrug and a “passable.”

          He was sure Buffy rolled her eyes by the way her whole body seemed to slouch in irritation, all the same she spun around to face him, her bright smile back in place as she handed him a mug full of coffee, “Like that’s going to tell me anything. Do you feel better now that you got it out of the way?”

          “A bit” he responded vaguely, knowing how much it annoyed her. He smiled into his coffee mug watching her roll her eyes at him again. It was easy to get a reaction from her, and he had enjoyed it back in Sunnydale.

          “Hey Oz is up!” Dawn exclaimed as she bounded into the kitchen, as cheerful – if not more so – than her sister. “I noticed that you weren’t in your room last night, where were you?” She finished by wiggling her eye brows.

          “He spent the night in the basement.” Buffy replied.

          He wasn’t sure he liked the look of the grin that broke out across Dawn’s face “Oooh, did you do something bad?”

          He couldn’t help but chuckle at the younger woman’s antics, but again Buffy offered an explanation, “He used it for his change. But don’t worry; the whole full moon phase thing is over now.”

          “Okay” Dawn submitted with an accepting nod. “Oh, Buff, I’m going to be at Andrew’s tonight, is that all right?”

          “Just make sure he doesn’t try anything.” Buffy joked playfully with her sister.

          Shaking his head at the two sisters, let the brief thought of what his life might have been like if he’d had a sibling, but tossed it aside just as soon as it appeared. Instead he offered his own insight, “I’d worry more about Dawn trying something.”

          Dawn stopped and looked incredulously at him before turning to look at her sister to ask in stage whisper, “Did he just make a funny?”

          Buffy replied back, her eyes focused on Oz as she fake whispered, “I can never tell with him. Maybe we should ask.”

          Both looked him straight in the eyes, and if he were a weaker man that hadn’t dealt with the horrors of life at such a young age he might have laughed, instead he focused an equally serious look on them that matched their own. Together the blonde and brunette asked, “Did you make a funny?”

          Screw his childhood drama, he couldn’t help but laugh at that. He was doubled over when the others joined him. It felt good to just let it all out. To not have a care in the world and not have to worry about having to keep his emotions under control for the sake of his wolf. A phone began ringing in the background, but the three of them were too busy laughing to be able to answer it.

          They all sobered when they heard the message begin to play out across the kitchen, “Hey,” Graham started a little uncertainly. Silence followed and Oz was almost certain the other man had hung up, but then he began talking again, “I know that your mom’s death is tomorrow so I just wanted to call to, I don’t know. Offer my sympathies? I just hope that you guys are doing alright. Bye.”

          Both sisters looked between each other. Oz could tell that they were both grateful for the call and saddened by the reminder of what tomorrow was, hell, he hadn’t even realized that Joyce’s death anniversary was tomorrow. He’d still been in California when he had heard about the death, he’d been seconds away from jumping in his van to go visit the funeral, but then he realized that Willow might not want him there. He’d sent flowers instead and then boarded a flight to Japan.

          Dawn finally spoke, sounding slightly dazed, “I can’t believe I forgot.” Buffy nodded numbly, Oz could somehow feel that she wasn’t feeling anything. Just as he’d been able to feel her emotions ever since the first night of the full moon cycle. Dawn looked away from the phone as she whispered, “And Graham remembered, he called even.”

          Buffy nodded slowly, still not feeling anything. Oz walked around the island in the middle of the kitchen and pulled Dawn against him just as tears started falling down her cheeks. After what happened to his grandparent’s he’d never been that fond of physical contact, he never went out of his way to avoid it, but he didn’t put himself out for it. And then when Jordy bit him, he withdrew from physical contact even more. But he put his own reservations aside, knowing that this was what Dawn needed.

          Dawn grabbed a fist full of his shirt and held on; he rubbed her back soothingly, knowing that after everything she’d been through, especially around the time that her mother died, she needed the comfort. Not for the first time, he wished he’d ignored his reservations and gone back to Sunnydale when he’d read Joyce’s obituary online.

          He slowly began to feeling something from Buffy, an over whelming sense of love and comfort, but there was still that numb feeling making her other emotions feel hazy. Oz had to shake off the feeling that something Sunnydale-esque was occurring, and he resolved to talk to Giles about this strange link as soon as he had a chance. Removing one arm from around the tall brunette, he motioned for Buffy to come over.

          He wasn’t sure who seemed more surprised. Him at the fact that Buffy all but flew at him, or Buffy for the fact that she all but flew into his embrace. So for the next few minutes, Oz was left comforting his hosts as they reconciled with the fact that they had forgotten about their mother’s upcoming death - or the anniversary of her death.

          Dawn pulled away first, having to duck around and under her sister as she did so. Wiping the tears off her cheeks she looked him in the eye and said a silent ‘thank you.’ He nodded his acknowledgement. “I’m going to head out, alright Buff?”

          Buffy turned he face away from Oz’s shoulder and with a snivel replied, “Okay, be back for tomorrow though.”

          “Don’t worry.” Dawn whispered before leaving the kitchen.

          Buffy turned to look at him, her hazel eyes meeting his blue, “Thanks, you really didn’t have to do this.”

          He shrugged, an arm still wrapped around her, “I’m a guy; we don’t like to see women cry.”

          Buffy laughed lightly as she buried her face back into his shoulder. He held her for several more minutes, waiting for her to pull back. When she finally did, he watched until she left the room. He waited until he heard the shower turn on upstairs. He waited another minute before he pulled out his cell phone and punching in a number.

          Half way through the second ring the person on the other end picked up, “Oz, how are things?”

          “They had forgotten.” He answered calmly, trying to mask his anger at the other man.

          “Shit” the other man cursed lightly, “What happened?”

          Growling, he answered simply, “You want to know? Then get your ass out of whatever hole you’ve put it in and get the fuck down here. These are your sisters, and if you care so damn much, stop using me as your fucking spy.” He snapped his phone shut, reminding himself of why he loved the folding phone over the larger iPhones that could do everything. A folding phone was just so much more dramatic.


	8. Chapter Eight

          Oz knew that Giles was no idiot. He wouldn’t have lived as long as he had in this world if he were. So as Oz sunk into the overstuffed chair in Giles’ living room, he got straight to the point.

          “Explain emotional links for me.” He began.

          He knew he was never one for words, and he knew that people respected that. But he also knew that he could have used a few more words just now, but he didn’t know what words to use.

          He watched patiently as Giles removed his glasses and began polishing them before placing them back on the bridge of his nose. Once the task was completed he looked up and asked, “Why?”

          “Because something weird is going on.” He answered with a simple shrug.

          He almost laughed when Giles removed his glasses to polish them again, “I’ve always had the utmost respect for you Oz, but I’m going to need a little bit more if you want the appropriate response.”

          Sighing, he finally answered “For the past few days I’ve been able to feel Buffy’s emotions.”

          It looked as if Giles was about to re-polish his glasses again when he realized he hadn’t replaced them on his nose. Sighing himself he stated, “Oh dear.”

          “My thoughts.” Oz muttered to himself absently.

          Oz was able to see the instant Giles changed from being a concerned friend slash parental figure to being a watcher. His back straightened slightly, a slight twinkle appeared in his eyes, wrinkles deepened on his forehead, and the barest hint of a smile graced his mouth. That and Oz was pretty sure he saw another hair turn from grey to white; they’d already turned all his hair grey so white was all that was left.

          “When exactly did this begin?” Giles asked seriously.

          “Shortly after we had dinner at Sam and Riley’s.”

          “Who all was there?”

          “Aside from the homeowners and family: Buffy, Dawn, and myself.”

          “And you can’t feel anyone else’s emotions from the dinner party?”

          “Only Buffy.”

          “Can she feel yours?”

          He levelled a blue eyed gaze on the watcher.

          “Right, we’ll have to ask later.”

          “In a few days.” Oz answered evenly.

          Giles’s brow furrowed further, “Why?”

          “Tomorrow, Joyce.” He left his explanation at that, having seen the understanding dawn on the older man.

          “Of course, we wouldn’t want to burden her. What was served at the meal?”

          “Pot roast.”

          “Everyone had the same meal?”

          Again Oz levelled Giles with a hard, but casually calm, gaze.

          “Of course, the younger ones would have had something separate.” Giles kept grilling him with questions, did you do anything out of the ordinary with Buffy – he turned slightly red with that question – and so on. Both were at a loss of explanation by the end of the questioning. They couldn’t identify a source of the link nor could they explain why it was there.

          Half way through the questioning they had moved into Giles’s private library where he began pulling books off the shelves only to replace them once he heard Oz’s answer or once the next question was answered. After polishing his glasses, again, Giles turned to Oz and asked, “Why did you come here?”

          The question confused Oz at first; he figured it was obvious why he came to Giles. He hadn’t wanted to see him at his office because of prying eyes and slayer hearing. They were already enough gossip flying around Fellowship about his staying at Buffy’s already. But then he realized just what the question meant.

          Sighing, Oz ran a hand through his hair, “Blackmail and spying.”

          “I’m sorry?”

          “Graham blackmailed me into coming here to spy on his sisters.” He finally admitted.

          “What did he blackmail you with?”

          “Guilt.” He shrugged, “Not my finest moment.”

          “Guilt over what?” Giles asked his brow furrowed in confusion and what Oz imagined to be slight dismay.

          “Tara, the Initiative, still being in California when Joyce died.” He responded with a casual shrug. Darkly he bit out, “It was emotional guilt, let’s leave it at that.”

          Giles nodded, clearly not wanting to anger the werewolf, and that was something Oz had been counting on. There were just some things about his past he didn’t want to get into, and the fact that Graham had been able to find out about those things and use them against him was not something he wanted to dwell on.

          “Perhaps Graham is behind the connection, to make sure that you are doing your best for his sisters.” Giles suggested.

          “No, it would have shown up sooner.”

          The excitement at possibly having found an answer faded from the watcher as he realized Oz had a valid point, “And why not both of them?”

          “Exactly.”

          “I might have to talk to Wesley about this, see if he has any suggestions. In the mean time, I would suggest keeping a close eye on those around you. We do not know who, or what, is behind this.”

          “Sure.” He said as he turned towards the front of the house to leave.

          “And Oz” Giles called after him, “If this has something to do with your family...”

          “Leave it.” He ground out darkly. “I told you that in confidence, no one needs to know and it has nothing to do with anything.”

          “Of course, I’m sorry. But I need to ask, as a friend, does anyone else know?” Giles asked him carefully.

          Oz turned slowly to look at the former watcher. Giles had come to him back in Sunnydale shortly after he’d learned he was a werewolf wanting to talk. Giles had pulled Oz’s student records, he’d learned everything. But he still wanted to hear it from Oz. That had been the only time Oz had told anyone about watching his grandparents die when he was only four.

          That was the very first memory Oz had of his life, watching from a stranger’s arms in a life boat, as his grandparents drowned. He didn’t remember anything else about the incident, just that he saw them die, heard them die. He knew from news articles that he had spent a weekend with his mother’s parents in Ireland. They’d taken his grandfather’s fishing boat out one day and it ran aground as a storm had begun. He didn’t remember how long after it had capsized that help reached them, or how he had managed to not drown when he hadn’t even had a life jacket on. He just remembered that a stranger had him in their arms on a life raft as he watched his grandparents drown.

          His mother had slowly begun to lose her mind after that. She’d lost her parents and nearly lost her son all in one go, and all because she had been trying to keep her torn up family together. Of course, Oz’s mother hadn’t always been the sanest of people to begin with; she’d suffered with being bi-polar disorder ever since she was a child. But that tragedy hadn’t helped. She’d run away, claiming that she was going to become a tree when Oz was seven.

          Still looking at Giles, Oz was only able to nod.

          “Graham, right?”

          Again he nodded.

          Giles hung his head a sighed, “I never figured him for such dark dealings.”

          “He didn’t use it against me.” Oz admitted, “That wasn’t exactly part of the blackmail. He said that I still had family and that it was here and that after what I’d been through he thought that I wouldn’t ever leave my family.” Sighing, he looked away from Giles and up at the ceiling, “The blackmail did nothing to get me here, it was that reminder of family.”

          “I understand, my offer from Sunnydale still remains, Oz. If you ever need to talk about it, please, you are most welcome to come to me.” Giles informed him softly.

          Still not able to look at Giles, he nodded numbly, understanding for himself what Buffy had felt just hours earlier after her brother’s call. “Thanks.” He managed to mutter before leaving the former librarian’s home.

          He walked not knowing where he was going until he found himself standing in the graveyard. There weren’t many graves, thankfully. Just the markers that Xander had stolen of Jesse, Kendra, Jenny Calendar, and Joyce’s and ones for those that fell during the final Sunnydale battle. There were also markers for some of Angel’s comrades: Doyle, Cordelia, Gunn’s sister also had a marker here, as well as Fred. It wasn’t so much a graveyard as it was a memorial as there were no bodies beneath to headstones.

          He stopped at Joyce’s not entirely sure why. He stood staring at it still numb from his talk with Giles until he felt the flutter of surprise from somewhere behind him. He didn’t bother turning around, knowing that it was Buffy.

          “What’s your reason?” She asked, her sadness returning to her.

          “Guilt.”

          Again he felt her surprise, “For what?”

          He sighed before answering, “I was two towns over when I heard about what happened. Instead of coming I boarded a plane for Japan.”

          Oz was surprised when he didn’t feel any anger, and then he realized that he had wanted to her to be angry at him.

          “But you sent flowers, we got those.” She told him, “Besides, you weren’t exactly as close to her as some of us were. You weren’t exactly close to anyone actually.”

          She was standing beside him now, and he offered up a weak smile, “I have trust issues.”

          They stood in silence, watching Joyce’s unmoving grave marker. Buffy pillowed herself against his side after a little while, and he cautiously wrapped an arm around her. As the sky began to darken above them, signaling the approach of night, he gently jostled Buffy awake. She didn’t respond at first, so Oz bent down and picked her up to carry her home.

          He almost didn’t catch what she said, even with his enhanced hearing, but he still heard her soft plea, “Don’t let go.”

          He smiled softly down at her sleeping form; he whispered gently, “Don’t worry.”


	9. Chapter Nine

          He wasn't sure what to expect, as he walked into the quiet house. Though he was certain it was not what he found. Stepping through the front door, using a key he had stolen and copied during his last visit, he dropped his bags on the floor next to the now closed door. He surveyed the front hall, finding everything to be safe, he moved into the living room. It was empty, which was somewhat odd, but not too surprising.

          Next he moved to the kitchen. Empty. Completely and utterly empty, and it was ten in the morning. Something was not right. The home owners weren't morning people but he knew that by now they were certain to be up.

          He carefully moved from the kitchen to the stairs. Arriving on the second floor, he quietly walked the halls, trying to find where everyone was. He looked into the first bedroom, empty, and it looked as if no one had slept in it. The second bedroom was also empty, but someone had clearly spent the night in it, there were also several books splayed across the rumpled covers. Cautiously, he stepped inside and took a look at the books, research.

          The third and final bedroom was a little further down the hall. Opening the door to the master, he froze in shock at the sight that greeted him. While both inhabitants were fully clothed, Buffy Summers was pillowed against Daniel Osbourne's side, even using his chest as a pillow.

          He was in such shock at the sight before him that he never heard anyone come up behind him until they spoke, "Graham?" He spun around at hearing his name and came face to face with his youngest sister Dawn. "What are you doing here?"

          Damn, she had to start with the hard questions didn't she. "I figured it was time."

          "It's been over a year!" She informed him angrily. "And why are you watching Buffy sleep?" Dawn added as an afterthought.

          "I wasn't, I was wondering where everyone was." He replied exasperated. "And she is not alone."

          "Oh, Oz?" Dawn asked as if it obvious, "She fell asleep at the graveyard and Oz carried her back, she didn't want him to leave so they bunked together."

          "Why was she at the grave-" He didn't have to finish the question as the answer struck him, her mother.

          Dawn nodded clearly realizing that he realized the answer. Looking into the bedroom, she added "Maybe we should catch up someplace else?"

          Nodding in reply, he closed the door and followed her into the kitchen downstairs. They sat in silence waiting for the coffee to brew, and once they both had a mug seated in front of them, Dawn asked, "So where were you?"

          He looked at his sister for a few minutes before answering, "I should tell you later, maybe when Buffy's around."

          "That bad?"

          "No, just saves me from repeating myself." He answered with a smile. Dawn laughed before agreeing with him. "So how are you? Riley says that you spent some time living with Vi, what changed?"

          "I wanted to make sure Buffy didn't scare Oz away or something. She likes her space. But she doesn't like the space you put between us." Dawn informed him hotly with a sharp poke to the center of his chest.

          He rubbed the pained spot not daring to look at the younger woman. Finished rubbing, he stared into his drink before saying to the hot liquid, "I needed time."

          "So, we needed you!" Dawn exploded. "Buffy went catatonic when she heard you bailed, froze up completely, like after Glory had kidnapped me. And I may or may not have completely destroyed part of the house thus making it look like a very angry demon was seconds away from successfully killing Buffy."

          "I blew up an island." He told her with a casual shrug. "No real reason, it was abandoned, no animals even lived on it. I just placed enough C4 around the place and stood back and watched it burn." He laughed at the memory of the tiny island, no larger than the Sunnydale high school, burning. "Spent five months in an Indonesian prison before I broke out. Spent a week in Russia hunting demons after that, then I came here."

          "Had you known that Buffy and I weren't here when you came?" Dawn asked. Graham couldn't tell how she was taking the news of his felony and near international incident.

          "No, I found out when I got here. But when I heard I was glad. I wasn't sure what to do, especially after what I _had_ done. When I heard that you were coming back in a few days I left. Went to LA and paid Angel a visit."

          "Because of the jail thing?" Dawn asked him, and he still couldn't tell what she was thinking.

          "Sort of, I used a fake name when they arrested me, pretended I was Australian too. I'm amazed they didn't figure it out while I was locked up. But yeah, I told Gunn, he said that he'd handle it quietly. After that, I headed to New Zealand. I'd heard Oz was there while I was here."

          "What _did_ you say to get Oz to come here anyways? We'd been trying for years and then suddenly you show up and convince him to come." Dawn asked him breaking his narrative.

          "All I said was that he should be with his family." Graham answered. He really didn't want to have to tell his sister about blackmailing her werewolf houseguest into spying on her.

          "Hmm, and it worked?" She asked incredulous. He shrugged in reply. "Why didn't we ever think of that?"

          "You were still building." He offered as an explanation.

          "Fair enough." Dawn responded with a shrug and a smile. Bumping his shoulder with her own she asked, "So where are you staying and for how long?"

          "Not sure where, but I've been discharged from the military so it's kind of indefinite."

          "You were discharged, why?" Dawn asked horror struck.

          "I blew up an island with military-grade C4, that I stole from the US." He answered her simply. "When Gunn took care of things, my bosses kind of found out. I was ordered back to DC three days after running into Oz. Since then I've been under their careful eye. Gunn managed to keep me from jail again, but I was dishonourably discharged."

          "I'm sorry."

          "It's not your fault, I should have known better."

          Dawn smiled, "True." Bouncing off her seat she turned to look at him, her bright blue eyes twinkling in such a way that caused a knot to form in Graham's stomach, "So, we need to find you a place to stay. And we should totally wake Buffy up. Oz is probably already awake, but Buffy looked comfy and when Buffy's comfy nothing can wake her, so we should go save Oz."

          Turning, Dawn pulled him from his seat and back up the steps. Arriving at the master bedroom, Dawn pushed the door open, and sure enough Oz was awake, in fact he waved at them. Graham silently hung his head at his sister's actions as he followed her into the room. Buffy hadn't moved from where she had been sleeping, and based on what Graham could read from Oz ... he knew nothing about how the man felt.

          With a wicked smile that instilled in Graham the desire to _not_ live with his sisters, Dawn jumped onto the queen sized bed with a tribal yell. Buffy sprung up awake, half her hair plastered to her face and the other half sticking up at weird angles. Oz had closed his eyes and braced for Dawn's impact and Buffy's reaction.

          "What the hell?" Buffy yelled angrily at her sister when she realized what had happened.

          "Morning sis!" Dawn greeted smiling brightly. "Hey Oz." Oz nodded his greeting and Buffy turned bright red.

          "I can explain. And nothing happened, see, fully clothed." Buffy started.

          "Save it, Oz explained last night when he brought you in. Never heard you plead before, though. That was definitely new."

          "When did I plead?" Buffy demanded looking between Dawn and Oz almost daring them to answer. She still hadn't noticed him hovering in the doorway watching his sister's interact.

          Dawn looked at Oz, clearly noticed he wasn't going to answer so did herself with an eye roll, "When he tried to put you down. I suggested you bunk and that kind of shut you up."

          Oz met Graham's gaze and based on his explanatory shrug, that was what happened. That was also when Buffy finally noticed him.

          "You!" She fumed with a glare promising pain. She flew out of the bed, somehow not injuring herself, her sister, or Oz in the process, and hurled herself at him.

          Graham did his best to brace for the attack he knew was coming, but instead he found his tiny sister hugging him and demanding to know where he'd been. Returning the hug, he began telling Buffy what he had already told Dawn. And he had hoped to only tell the story once. By the time the day was half over he'd already told the story of blowing up an island, spending time in jail, and being dishonourably discharged a minimum of twenty-eight times, and there was still the entire Anya House that wanted to know.


	10. Chapter Ten

          The shrill ringing of his cell phone was what woke him from his dreamless sleep. Or what he assumed was a dreamless sleep because he couldn't remember having dreamt. Rolling over and fumbling in the dark blindly, despite it being 3 in the afternoon based on his bedside clock, he found his phone and accepted the call.

          "Ah, Wesley, just the man I was hoping to speak with." Giles said in way of greeting. And the other Watcher's recent habit of stating the obvious was what alerted Wesley to there being a major crisis of apocalyptic proportions.

          "Then it's a good thing you dialed my number. What can I do for you?" He asked dreading the answer.

          "How much do you know about spontaneous mind links?"

          It really was a major crisis.

          "You're not the first person to ask me about mind links in the past few months." He replied rubbing his eyes and looking for the switch on his bedside lamp.

          "Really, who else was asking?" Giles questioned, perhaps thinking there was some form of epidemic.

          Having taken a blood oath on the matter of the last inquiry, Wesley was only able to reply, "No one of import. I have a few vacation days saved up, why don't I come down and we can figure this out together."

          "Good, that certainly might be better. I'll see you in a few days."

          "I live in LA, and have recently perfected my teleportation, I'll be there once I'm packed." Wesley stated before hanging up.

          Groaning at only getting two hours of sleep, he pushed himself out of bed and began dressing. Heading down to the lobby of the Hyperion he found Connor leaning on the reception desk looking bored.

          "You're up early." The younger man stated.

          "And everyone loves pointing out the obvious today. I'm going to be using my vacation days, if you would be so kind as to leave a note for Harmony, I would appreciate it."

          "Where ya going?" The boy asked clearly bored and also clearly not going to leave that note.

          Connor had previously been annoying to the point that he and Gunn had begun placing bets on who would kill Angel's progeny first. Then he returned to Stanford and got better, mostly. He had a tendency to relapse whenever he was around Angel for too long. And as they'd learned recently it was only Angel that caused Connor to relapse. Wesley had promised Angel he would investigate ... eventually.

          Sighing he turned from the Hyperion's library to look at the toddler-teen. "Fellowship."

          "Cool, can I come, school's off for a while - as you know - and this place is _boring_." He droned as he jumped up to sit on the counter, "Jordy's been talking about heading over to see his cousin, and I'd been thinking of joining him, finally get to see the place, you know."

          "You'd have to clear it with your father." Wesley said simply as he pulled random books from the 'psychic' section of the bookshelf.

          "He's already said no. But if you ask he'd be more likely to say yes. And besides, you planned this rather suddenly and you're raiding the library's psychic section. Something is clearly up, maybe I could help."

          "I'm teleporting." He informed the other man simply.

          "Don't forget your scuba gear then, because I heard the last time involved a trip to the polar ice caps, and you were aiming for Haiti."

          He suddenly began to understand why Giles cleaned his glasses so much. It was to keep from strangling someone. "Willow's coming to pick me up."

          "You've called her already?"

          He sighed, "Not yet, but I will once I'm packed."

          "Then you can tell her that Jordy and I will be coming too."

          "And if I don't?"

          "I'll tell my dad you're ruining his chance at Buffy." Connor replied with an innocent shrug. Wesley truly worried what would happen when Connor met Dawn if he could already manage such acts as innocence and blackmail simultaneously.

          "Fine, I shall speak with Angel about your joining myself and Jordy to Fellowship." He replied defeated.

 

          Willow paced her office, trying to wait patiently for the arrival of her guests. Wesley had called not two minutes earlier saying that Giles had called about spontaneous mind links. Wesley had, naturally, agreed to help. And then Connor had blackmailed Wesley into bringing him and Jordy along. That Connor knew of their plan was bad enough, but if Oz's somewhat over protective, slightly OCD, and struggling to control himself younger cousin were to find out, - _bad_ was the only thing that Willow could think of.

          Which is of course the reason that Willow was currently pacing her office. Wesley had mentioned texting her once the trio were all packed, and she needed to come up with some sort of plan to keep _their_ plan secret, because really, did she honestly want her best friend and ex-boyfriend to find out she was magically setting them up? With the help of Buffy's sister, Buffy's ex-boyfriend's wife, and her former interim watcher?

          No.

          And then there was Graham to contend with. Where was he going to fit into all this? Would he approve of what they were doing to Buffy and Oz? And better yet, did his opinion really matter? He'd taken off after learning he had two sisters and then blew up an island. Was he even sane? But then stopping to think about it, Willow might run away if she were to learn Buffy and Dawn were her sisters and they were two of her best friends, and she'd once tried to end the world. Maybe she should go easy on Graham and not skin him alive as she originally planned.

          Joking. Sort of.

          With no plan beyond distracting Connor (somehow) and dissuading Giles (somehow), she felt her phone buzz in her hand telling her that Wes had texted. Sighing she quickly teleported to the Hyperion, picked up Fellowship's new guests, and returned to her office with them. Only for Jordy to promptly lose his lunch in her waste basket.

          "I am never doing that again." Jordy stated when he finally finished.

          "Then how are you getting back to LA?" Connor countered, "And that was awesome, way better than that trip we took to the Serengeti." Wesley had been aiming for Gunn's office at Wolfram and Hart.

          "That's because I know how to teleport." Willow pointed out as she cast a quick spell over the waste basket to clean it out. "How about I call in Vi and have her give you two a tour while Wesley and I talk."

          "Vi, that's the girl Andrew keeps going on about, the slayer, right?" Jordy questioned as Wesley tried to wheel the tag-alongs out of the room.

          "Yes, that is Vi." He answered tiredly before closing the door behind them.

          "Vi will be up in a minute." Willow assured him, "How could you let this happen, by the way?"

          "Me, you're the one that came up with this fool hardy plan. And should we really be discussing this when they can both hear?"

          Willow huffed in frustration before relenting. When they heard Vi arrive to begin the tour of Fellowship, she picked right back up. "You're the one that spoke to Giles about this, you should have gotten him off the trail."

          "How did he even find out about the link?" Wesley asked. Damn, that was a pivotal question that she still hadn't been able to figure out.

          "I don't know. Dawn says that everything's been going great between them. Neither suspects anything. Sure Graham coming back has kind of waylaid the plan because of the brother-sister bonding that's now going on-"

          "Graham is back?" Wes asked surprised.

          Willow stopped her pacing to spin on Wesley. "Yeah, he blew up an island. I'd have thought you'd know, he'd been to see Gunn."

          "I knew about his troubles, not that he was here. How does he factor into this little plan of ours?"

          Willow shrugged and went back to pacing. "I have absolutely no idea. He seemed concerned about her when he was here last, and now he's going to be staying permanently. He was also the one that got Oz to move here. Graham is just too much of a wild card." She finished ranting by throwing her hands into the air in exasperation.

          "And now we have Jordy." Wesley added all too helpfully. "The good news is that while he is protective of his cousin, who he considers his pack Alpha according to Connor, he also wants to see him happy."

          "That's good. Not great, but certainly a jumping off point."

          "Perhaps we should call Dawn and Samantha is for this discussion. I can imagine it will become rather important."

          Willow agreed and made the call. Dawn was at Sam's helping out with the kids. Together they made arrangements that left Buffy babysitting with Oz's help. Riley and Graham were out 'catching up' but what Xander had to do with their catching up had Willow dubious that that was what was really happening.

          They arrived fifteen minutes later each giving Wesley a hug in greeting. Sam was quick to tell them about depositing her children on Buffy and Oz. They had stayed for a few minutes to get everyone settled and observed Buffy and Oz acting great with them. They enjoyed the improving fruits of their labours.

          Wesley was the first to break the joy. "Giles is asking questions about mind links."

          "Shit." Both Dawn and Sam managed simultaneously.

          "Also," Willow jumped in, "Jordy and Connor are here and Connor knows."

          "At least part of it." Wesley amended. "He only stated he knew we were ruining Angel's chance at Buffy."

          "Great." Dawn muttered. "Well I can figure out how much he knows. Vi texted me on my way here that she'd offered up her and Andrew's place to the boys for the stay. Seems Jordy and Vi are also hitting it off if the texts Andrew keeps sending me are anything to go by."

          "I thought Xander hadn't finished with their place yet." Sam stated in wonder.

          "Technically he has, there's just clean up and some small things. Andrew's started decorating but everyone figures it's habitable now. It just isn't that great looking on the inside."

          "Okay, escapades of everyone's favourite not-couple aside, we need to figure this out." Wesley abruptly interrupted. "Giles seems to be on to us, is that a good thing or a bad?"

          "Definitely bad." Dawn stated as Sam shrugged.

          "Sam?" Willow asked seeing Sam's non-committal gesture.

          "He's a father figure to everyone right? And I imagine he'd want them to be happy. It could go either way, really. But I think we'd need to get his feelings on their being a couple first."

          "I still don't understand why you think they'd make a good couple." Wesley remarked off-handedly.

          Dawn sat up in her chair, back suddenly ramrod straight as she seemed to prepare to defend her decision. "One, they are adorable together. Two, a drunken game of 'date-fuck-kill' showed that she'd date Oz every time he came up, even over Angel and Riley. Three, a first-hand knowledge of her high school diary states she thought he was hot. And four, they would make the most adorable babies and I want to be an aunt."

          Dawn then turned to Willow, waiting for her reasons. "Everything except three." Then with surprise she questioned "She thought Oz was hot back in Sunnydale?"

          "Oh please, you're the one that decided to set them up. I simply stated they'd make a great couple." Dawn countered her indignantly.

          Willow huffed and prepared herself to begin a verbal debate with the former Key when Sam suddenly broke in on the conversation and offered her reasons or joining their little project. "Buffy deserves a normal life after everything she's been through, and we all know that's not possible. She should have the next best thing, and having now met Oz and seen her with him, I think he is the best person. He knows her, and he knew her when things were really crazy for her. She doesn't need to hide anything about herself with him." They all stared at Sam in surprise. She caught their astonished expressions and shrugged a look of confusion on her face as she added, "And number four. They would have adorable babies."

          "Very well," Wesley muttered, "valid reasons, and if the spell is working then there were clearly already feelings in place." The three women all looked anywhere in the room other than in Wesley's direction all of a sudden. "You didn't alter the spell to make it a love spell did you?" He asked worriedly.

          Willow quickly answered, "No! We just waited a few months after Oz got here to give it to them."

          "We wanted to make sure we were right about how they might feel." Dawn hastily added.

          "As it was, we weren't entirely certain we would even need it, but we thought it best to make sure everything was on track." Willow continued, "And Buffy was whining about never managing to catch up to Sam again."

          Sam rolled her eyes then, "I've made it clear to Riley that if I get pregnant in the next five years I'm cutting his balls off. She should have plenty of time to start, and it's not like it's a competition."

          "She knows, she just wants normalcy." Dawn informed them.

          "So Giles?" Wesley began again. "What should we do?"

          "Figure out what exactly it is he wants to know and why." Sam stated. "We also need to figure out how Graham might factor into this."

          "Rumour I heard through the grapevine is that Graham blackmailed Oz into coming back to spy on us." Dawn stated. "I'd hate him for it, but I'm kind of liking having a brother and it got Oz back."

          "The 'grapevine'" Willow asked skeptically as her brain tried to also process the idea of Oz spying on Buffy and Dawn for Graham, "does that mean Andrew and Vi?"

          Dawn nodded. "Seems one of the slayers overheard Giles muttering about it in his office and mentioned it to one of the watchers who mentioned it near Andrew who told Vi, and they told me. I wanted to kill Graham at first, and Oz, but then I calmed myself and realized how great it was."

          "I'll deal with Graham." Sam muttered darkly.

          "And then there's Jordy." Willow added.

          Sam looked between everyone, "What's the problem there?"

          Wesley sighed, "Jordy is extremely protective of Oz. He sees him as his pack Alpha. While he would likely agree with anything that would make Oz happy, and strengthen the pack - we have to remember Jordy was very young when he was bitten and is ruled more than anyone I've met by his animal instincts - he'd be angry over magic being used on Oz."

          "I might be able to figure something out with Jordy." Dawn offered. "Like I said, Andrew and Vi are housing Connor and Jordy at their place, and I'll be trying to learn what exactly Connor knows, so Jordy's opinion on the match should be easy to figure out."

          "Are you planning to move into their place?" Willow suddenly asked.

          Dawn shrugged, "Might need to if everything goes to plan. I so do _not_ want to be there when Buffy and Oz start bumping uglies."

          They spent the next hour catching up on Fellowship gossip and learning what all was going on in LA before Wesley, Sam, and Dawn departed Willow's office. When the door finally closed behind them, Willow relaxed in her chair. Her initial doubt over their plan when Wesley had called had passed as they had gone over everything, and she was once again certain that this was the best course of action. Sam was going to try and figure out what Graham thought of Buffy and Oz getting together, which based on how well the spell was already working wasn't going to be long now. Dawn was handling Connor and Jordy, while Wes figured out what Giles was concerned over.

          Of course, the number flashing suddenly across Willow's phone sent a chill through her spin. What the hell would Faith think when she learned about this? Faith had become about as protective of Buffy as Jordy was of Oz. Faith saw Buffy as her moral compass, and had been the one voice against Oz joining the council's senior members, though she's never given a reason why. That was something for Willow to work on.

          Taking a deep breath, Willow answered her phone. "Hey, Faith, what's going on?"

          "Are Buffy and Oz fucking?" The dark haired slayer said by way of greeting.

          Willow blinked in surprise and tried to figure out what the hell was going on. "Why do you ask?"

          "Because I just came from Buff's place and she and the wolf boy were way too cozy. They were also playing happy family with Riley's brood. So I ask of the only person likely to have an answer for me, are Buffy and Oz fucking?"

          "No."

          "Hmm. That's strange, I thought they would be, animal attraction and all that. Thought they'd go at it, it'd get too messy and wolf boy would run like he had with you. It's why I said no."

          "He did not run away from me." Willow bit out moodily, "And you said no because you thought he and Buffy would end up in a relationship that would go bad?" She asked incredulous, and wow that was easy to figure out.

          "Not a relationship. Fucking. There's a difference, trust me. If I thought those two could manage a relationship I'd have said yes."

          "Like you and Xander are managing a relationship?" Willow countered, knowing all too much about their disturbing ... whatever they had going on. "What even is that?"

          "On- off relationship with casual sex in between." Faith answered, "Perfectly healthy and no baggage. So what _is_ going on in that house?"

          Willow sighed into the receiver. "I think they might have feelings for each other."

          "Damn, if they do start dating then I owe Robin twenty bucks."

          "You made a bet with Robin?" Willow asked horrified. "And don't you dare try and break them up!"

          "Why not?"

          "I'm working too hard to try and get them together!"

          "You're setting your best friend up with your ex! Isn't there a girlfriend code against dating the friend's ex?"

          "There is, but it's void in this case because I am setting them up. Dawn and Sam are helping me, so don't try anything Faith!"

          Faith whistled over the line clearly impressed. "Sam's helping, damn, then it _is_ a sure thing. You reimburse the twenty I'll end up giving Robin and I'll ship it."

          Surprised and also not surprised, Willow smiled. "Deal, and I need you keep this quiet. No one other than Wesley knows, and he's also helping."

          "Riley and Kennedy don't know?"

          "No, so keep quiet."

          "Done, but when this works how long before you're planning their firstborn's wedding to one of Sam's spawn? Because I want to put money on that against Robin."

          Willow rolled her eyes at Faith's statement. But she did bring up a valid idea. Now there would be some even cuter kids. They'd even have their first legacy family going. Smiling with plans for yet another project brewing, she informed Faith, "No plans yet, but you and I will start getting some going at the wedding, how's that?"

          She could practically hear Faith's return smile through the line as she responded, "Done."


	11. Chapter Eleven

          Buffy was becoming serious annoyed with her dreams of a perfect life. She was more than aware of how stupid that sounded, but she was having trouble getting a full night's sleep because of them. Always waking up whenever things got too surreal. It had started with simple loving gestures from Oz, in the dream. Sometimes there would be chaste kisses, sometimes they would be passionate ones that left Buffy frustrated when she awoke. But never did her dreams actually become X-rated. They always featured her and Oz acting like a loving couple and that made something ache in Buffy more than an interrupted sex dream. Frankly there were times she'd prefer a sex dream staring Oz.

          She woke around four in the morning to the sounds of a quiet house. Grabbing her pillow she screamed into it and then lay helplessly on her back. Sighing she went quickly over the latest dream. She'd been balancing a child on her hip and watching Oz make dinner. That was it, and yet her entire body felt electric. Of course, Oz had also made dinner the night before so maybe it was just her brain ... nope she couldn't even finish that thought. She'd had dreams like that one before.

          Frustrated, she threw off the bed covers and headed for the bathroom. Throwing some water onto her face to try and erase the dream, and the effect it had on her, she stared at her reflection. Dark bags under her eyes, her hair a messy rat's nest, and she should probably do a load of laundry based on the smell of her shirt.

          She thought briefly of talking to Giles about her dreams. Selfishly though, she also didn't want them to stop. What did that say about her? She knew some people, Dawn, would call her a glutton for punishment based on her past relationships. Buffy didn't think she was.

          Buffy just liked how she felt in the dreams. And the frustrating part of them was that when she woke up she realized they weren't real. She stared at her shocked expression in the mirror as she came to that conclusion. And the jaw dropping discovery that she was falling in love with the silent werewolf.

          Shame there was the girlfriend code that prevented anything from happening. Though maybe Willow wouldn't mind, she was gay now. She shook her head against the thought, no, there were no exceptions to the code.

          And of course, there was Oz. Did he feel the same? Probably not, though it was incredibly hard to tell with him. She'd gotten very good at reading him and understanding his unique way of communicating in the time he'd spent here, but he was still so closed off. He kept so much of himself locked away as if he was afraid of something. And maybe he was? He had told her once that he had trust issues, and it was plain as day that he wasn't very good with physical contact. She and Dawn had slowly been curing Oz of that ailment.

          But still, her falling in love with Oz meant nothing if he didn't feel the same. And Buffy would lay money that that was the case.

          She hadn't realized how much time had passed with her staring at herself in the mirror until she heard the tell tale sounds of Dawn entering the house. In the week since Wesley, Jordy, and Connor had arrived Dawn had been spending most of her days and several nights at Vi and Andrew's with Jordy and Connor. It was clear to everyone, and painful it seemed for Oz, that Jordy and Vi had something already going on. Buffy hadn't gotten around to meeting Connor but from what she'd heard Andrew say Dawn liked Angel's son.

          Exiting the bathroom she made her way down to greet Dawn and instead was met with the sight of Oz sitting on the bottom step having one of his sort-of conversations with Graham. "Hey, boys, getting along?" She asked seating herself on the step above Oz's.

          Graham looked away from Oz, his icy blue eyes softening from their glare when they landed on her. "You're up pretty early."

          She shrugged, "Had trouble sleeping." Oz's green eyes landed on her and she heard his silent question. "It's fine." He voiced his silent opinion on that matter. She responded with an eye roll and a pointed, "It's nothing Giles needs to know about. Probably just stress or something." She cut off his response halfway through by raising a hand, "Seriously nothing to wig out over!"

          She turned away from Oz not wanting to hear whatever else he might have to say, and because she didn't want to give her feelings away. She saw Graham watching them with surprise on his face and scowled at him as he informed them "That was creepy."

          She chuckled at Oz's silent 'not as creepy as blowing up an island' head tilted response. One lesson Buffy quickly learned after learning Oz's unique way of communicating was that he was actually very opinionated, and he had an opinion on pretty much everything. Including Dawn's habit of stealing his pop tarts. More than once Buffy thought she was going to have to stop her house guest from murdering her sister over that issue.

          Graham leveled his own silent stare at them and Buffy shrugged and stood up. "So what are you doing here?"

          Now he shrugged, "Just wanted the stop in, see how things are going."

          She snorted, "And yet you knew I wasn't likely to be up."

          "Dawn." Oz stated simply.

          "Please everyone knows she's half moved into Andrew and Vi's place. Only reason she hasn't is because they gave would might have been her room to your cousin and Connor." She informed the werewolf and her brother easily.

          "Okay, so I didn't have it all that well planned out." Graham said arms raised in defeat. "It's the thought that counts, right?"

          "Yeah, sure, I guess you could say that." Buffy grumbled using Oz's shoulder to help push herself to her feet. "Well I have plans with Willow so I'll leave you two be. Don't do something I wouldn't do." She tossed over her shoulder before dashing up the stairs and back to her room.

          She grabbed some clothes and headed for the bathroom and a quick shower. Cleaned and dressed, she headed for the kitchen and found Oz at the table going over the paper. The newspaper for Fellowship was managed by some of the Watchers and contained world news, gossip, the daily demon hunting tip, and lots of puzzles. Spike also submitted a weekly update from Los Angeles with his unique brand of wit that usually read like a weather forecast.

          She sidled up behind him and leaning over his shoulder so that she could actually rest her chin on it, she asked, "Anything interesting?"

          Oz seemed unsurprised by her proximity, simply looked at her through the corner of one green eye and shrugged. "Outlandish gossip that Wesley is here to sleep with Willow."

          "What?!" She shrieked in horror. She apologized quickly for yelling into Oz's ear as she grabbed the paper from him. "That can't be, Will wouldn't do that to Kennedy. And Wesley wouldn't do that either. Oh, oh, Michelle wrote it, it's not true. Michelle has this crush on Wesley and tries to deny it by making him out to be this playboy that can't stop sleeping with people long enough to eat. I mean she once told this story about how she heard he was so into a girl-"

          Oz cut her off mid-babble with a hand over her mouth and a murderous glare. Buffy grimaced behind the hand, tried to hide what the feel of his skin on her did and pulled away from him. "Sorry, not something I want to think about either."

          She returned the paper to him, picked up his coffee mug and took a sip walking around the table. She felt his silent gaze watching her and tried _really_ hard not to look at him as she pulled open the cupboard. Smiling, she pulled out the pop tart box and tossed it to him. She heard him catch it and when she looked over he wore a smile.

          Smiling at the easy simplicity of her life, she returned to the table snagged a pop tart from the box and returned Oz's now half empty mug. She stopped herself just short of leaning down to give him a kiss and with a flash of embarrassment over the near miss fled from the house.

          Halfway down the street she ran into Sam who was out for a morning jog with baby Luke in his pram. She stopped to talk with her neighbour who was also giving her brother a bed, or couch.

          Graham had tried staying in the Merrick House after his return, but two nights in he grew frustrated with the constant bombardment of questions and decided that Riley's couch was a better option. Why he chose three young children over his sister's couch was a point of anger between the siblings, but Graham kept pointing out they already had a house guest. Oz had offered to take the couch, or even move to Merrick House, but Dawn had vehemently opposed that much to everyone's surprise.

          Buffy finally continued on her way with a promise of babysitting tomorrow when Luke began to cry. She watched Sam head off for her home with a wistful expression before shaking it off and continuing to the next street and Willow and Kennedy's place. She met Kennedy on her way out to teach her combat class for Watchers and was told that Willow would be down in a couple minutes she was just finishing up a call with Wesley. Buffy grimaced and called after Kennedy to warn her about the story Michelle had put in the paper. Kennedy cursed and swore to make the Watcher's day hell.

          Laughing, Buffy took a seat on the couch and yelled up to her friend to let her know she was there. Willow emerged a few minutes later looking shocked. "Are you feeling alright? You are never up this early." Willow demanded placing a hand to Buffy's forehead to check her temperature.

          "I'm fine, I just had trouble sleeping."

          "Oh, any reason in particular?" Willow asked taking the seat next to her.

          She shook her head, "No, just been having trouble for a bit now. Probably stress or something, nothing to worry about."

          "Stress? What exactly is there to be stressed about? We aren't due for another apocalypse for a few months and we only have the occasional demon sighting near here. All the light magic we've fed into the ground acts as a barrier to keep them away."

          "True, but we do still get the odd demon wanting to know what's going on, or thinking it'll be the one to do some damage." Buffy reminded her friend. "No, I don't know. I keep telling Oz it's nothing and I think I've finally got him believing me, so I don't need you wigging out now."

          "Oz knows you have trouble sleeping?" Willow asked surprised.

          She shrugged, "Sure, we kind of live in the same house at the moment. We play scrabble and Jenga during the full moon cycle. Unless he decides to use the basement in order to change."

          "Okay, I don't know what part of that statement to be more surprised over, so I'm just going to move away from it." Willow exclaimed in surprise. "Want anything to eat?"

          "Nah, I ate before I came over."

          "What?"

          "Pop tart and coffee. Oz shares the pop tarts if you don't take his."

          Willow shook her head in seeming disbelief, "Okay pop tarts are not a proper breakfast. We've been over this extensively, remember?"

          Buffy did remember the pop tart conversation from shortly after her mother's death. She and Dawn had lived off of pop tarts and fast food until Tara sat them both down and gave them a very lengthy lecture on the matter.

          "I remember! And it's Oz that has an unhealthy obsession with them, and normally a proper breakfast accompanies a pop tart, but I kind of wanted to see my best friend."

          Willow pursed her lips and grumbled for a few minutes before declaring that she was making Buffy a proper breakfast. What part of a plate of eggs, a side of bacon, and a breakfast sausage was any better than a single blueberry pop tart was a little beyond Buffy's understanding. But she went with it.

          "Oz cooks the eggs in the bacon grease." She offered up mildly after she had finished the meal. If she'd made the comment at any point while she was still eating she would have gotten a very scary Willow glare and had her plate removed.

          "Well I'm not Oz." She told her tartly. "So what _is_ going on between you two?" Willow asked as she rinsed the dishes. "You guys have been living together for months and seem pretty close."

          Buffy shrugged as she remembered the girlfriend code. "Nothing, we're just friends. And he's not living with me, he's a house guest and we're still waiting to hear back from Xander about getting him a place."

          Willow seemed to grimace before quickly turning away and offering up, "I was talking to Faith the other day and she said that Xander was pretty busy."

          Buffy was confused by her friends reaction but chose to ignore it in favour of gossip on her sister original slayer. And anything to end the current conversation. "So what's the latest statues of their relationship? Are they on or off?"

          "According to Xander they're off, but Faith says on." Willow answered turning back and laying her forearms on the counter in a conspirator-like manner. Buffy knew juicy gossip was about to fly. "Also, seems they're having another one of their parenthood arguments. Seems Faith had another scare and this time it's Faith that wants one and not Xander."

          Buffy shook her head in amazement, "Those two have the most toxic relationship I have ever seen and I caused Angel to lose his soul. How do they keep doing this to themselves?"

          Willow shrugged before taking a sip from her tea cup. "I have no idea, but according to Kennedy, Robin's bet Antonio two grand that within the next five years they'll get married."

          "And divorced two days later, only to keep going with whatever the hell it is they have going a week after that." Buffy continued, "Andrew mentioned the bet. I still can't believe some of the things people make bets on."

          Willow shook her head, "Yeah, I know. Faith and Robin have one going about you are Oz."

          Buffy spit the sip of coffee she'd just taken out and across the kitchen counter island into Willow's face. "What the _Hell_ is that bet about?!"

          Willow glared at her, thankfully not full Willow glare, and took up a dish cloth to wipe some of the coffee away. When she finished she tossed the cloth into the sink, "Faith says you two will sleep together while Robin thinks you'll start dating."

          Buffy felt her cheeks heat even as she shook her head furiously in denial, "I would never! The girlfriend code-!"

          "Please, I'm gay. I don't think it applies in this case." Willow informed her with a wave.

          "Still, I wouldn't."

          "What? Date him?" Willow asked sceptically, "Please, gay or not, I know he's hot. Even Kennedy's acknowledged that. Don't you like him?"

          Buffy blushed again and tried to give a denial but Willow shrieked and pointed an accusing finger at her, "You do, you like Oz! Oh Goddess, this is awesome!"

          "How?" She demanded, "He is a really good friend and I don't want to loss that. Besides, I don't think he likes me."

          "Seriously?" Willow asked almost horrified, "You don't get any kind of feeling of affection from him?"

          She shook her head before burying it in her folded arms on the counter. She asked Willow, or more accurately the granite counter top, "He's not exactly the most forthcoming with what he thinks. You should know that."

          She felt Willow's hand on her back, and raised her head to look at the redhead. "Yeah, but you seriously aren't even getting a vibe or something?"

          Again she shook her head, this time slower out of confusion. Why did Willow keep asking the question like that? "No, just these dreams that make sleeping really hard."

          Willow froze behind her. "You're getting dreams?" She asked slowly enunciating each word.

          "Yeah, and they aren't like sex dreams or anything. It's just, I don't know, hard to explain."

          "No, I get it. Hey, I just remembered I have a meeting with Wesley." Buffy turned in her seat suddenly to look at the best friend that was now giving her the blow off. So much for not caring about the girlfriend code. Buffy knew it was a bad idea to mention her feelings to Willow. "Can we continue this discussion later? Maybe after lunch?"

          Dejected, Buffy nodded and made her way to the entrance. Willow offering apologies the entire way. "We'd made plans for it earlier on the phone and I meant to mention we'd have to keep this short, but then I forgot and I am so sorry Buffy." She rambled on and was still doing so as Buffy reached the end of her driveway.

 

          Closing the door after watching Buffy head off down the street, Willow quickly grabbed her cell phone and sent a group text to Sam, Dawn, and Wesley. They arrived within half an hour.

          Closing the door behind Sam, who had her three kids with her, she turned frantically on her co-conspirators and informed them in complete terror, "We have a problem. Buffy's getting the dreams."

          Dawn's face froze in shock, "But she was supposed to get the feelings."

          Wesley shook his head, "It lines up with what I got from Giles. Oz came to him about emotional links."

          "That's not good." Sam stated the obvious as she bounced Luke on her hip.

          "And Oz seemed to figure out that the link started during a dinner at your place." Wesley added remorsefully.

          "That's really not good." Willow said over Dawn and Sam's sudden curses. Collapsing onto the couch she picked up Dean. "The good news is that Buffy admitted she likes him."

          "That's kind of obvious." Sam stated, "Even Graham's made a comment about it. Came back to our place after going over earlier this morning and called them an old married couple without being old or married."

          "Okay, so we've got Buffy. What about Oz?" Dawn asked. They all looked at each other and shrugged. "Great." The brunette muttered. They had absolutely no idea what Oz's feelings were.


	12. Chapter Twelve

          If ever there was one thing Oz was certain he felt, it was a deep seated need to kill Graham Miller. The guy blackmailed him into coming to Fellowship to spy on his sisters and now he was threatening him with physical harm in an effort to keep him away from Buffy. He'd glared silently at the ex-Army Ranger through a modified version of the shovel speech, this one involving a rocket launcher, an axe, and a reminder of an Atlantis-like island.

          When Graham finally finished his lengthy speech, Oz had zoned out at one point but he's pretty sure he heard mention of a bulldozer and an archeology team, he stated simply, "Make up your mind." Taking the paper from the mailbox, he closed the front door in Graham's face.

          He made his way to the kitchen and slowly brewed a pot of coffee. He drank his first cup listening to the water running upstairs, he'd recently found that copious amounts of caffeine seemed to counter whatever link he seemed to have with Buffy. Added that her crazy spiral of emotions had woken him around five that morning so he also figured he needed the coffee to make it through the day.

          He'd poured his second cup a minute before Buffy came into the kitchen and peered over his shoulder asking if anything interesting was in the paper. He winced at her shrill shriek and tried to hide the fact that she'd given him a paper cut over the palm of his hand as she snatched the paper away. He glared as he had to forcibly cut off her rant about Michelle's obvious crush on Wesley. When she threw him the box of pop tarts, he dropped the glare he'd kept on her after she stole his coffee.

          As she left the house he downed the rest of the coffee she'd left in his mug and did everything to try and ignore the spike in her emotions that he'd noticed before she left the kitchen. A part of him had been certain the way her emotions were leaning that she was about to give him an easy peck on the cheek, there had been some casual affection that had that underlining something there. He'd felt her spike of embarrassment and noticed that it directly preceded and accompanied her exit.

          Pouring a third cup, he considered paying Giles another visit. This link that he seemed to have into her emotions was wrecking havoc on his. For a second there he'd wanted her to kiss him, and he didn't know if that was because of her wanting to or because of his emotions. Or had her emotions been influencing his?

          He couldn't deny that he'd been getting closer to Buffy, but romantically? No. Even though everyone seemed to think so. Riley and Xander had both commented on it, and then Graham had just given him the shovel speech. Shaking his head, he down the entire mug of still steaming hot coffee in one big gulp and instantly regretted it as he felt the scorching heat race down his throat and settle in his stomach. Not something he ever needed to feel. Stupidly fanning his mouth, he poured a glass of cold water from the jug in the fridge and down that quickly too.

          Resting against the counter Oz tried to figure out exactly what was going on. He knew he didn't feel anything for Buffy, but was that true? If he was reading her emotions right, she seemed to feel something for him, and sure that was an ego stroke, but what if her feelings was unconsciously affecting his?

          Alone in the silent house, he took a therapy page from George of the Jungle - why was that Vi's favourite movie? - and screamed to the high heavens. Yup, just like the good old ape man had said, Oz felt instantly better. But feeling better didn't solve any problems.

          He tossed his mug into the sink and grabbed the keys he'd been given. Locking the door behind him, he headed for Giles'. Maybe the older man would have found some answers now that Wesley was here. He was half way to Giles' place when he froze in the middle of the street.

          What were Dawn, Wesley, and Sam doing at Willow's place? He watched the group leave, Willow waving them off. Wesley headed off towards the main building, while Dawn and Sam headed in another direction with the young Finn children. Why weren't they heading back to Sam's? He stood puzzling over the sight, which wasn't actually strange but something about it struck him as off.

          Shaking the feeling off, he continued on down the street and turned up the drive of Giles's stately home. Giles had been slightly appalled by the grandeur of the Victorian home that Xander had built him at first. They were a small community so why he needed a three story, not including the attic and basement, home with six guest rooms and for some reason a nursery, had been lost on everyone. Xander simply said that the building suited Giles. Xander's extravagance on the building had been forgiven when Giles had seen the library that was included. Apparently though, Giles had still not forgiven the one-eyed man for the bronze fountain depicting Aphrodite rising from her shell in the middle of his circular driveway.

          Ringing the doorbell, Oz waited for the sort-of mayor of Fellowship to answer, though he still expected a butler. It took about a minute for Giles to answer the door, apologizing for the wait and cursing Xander for the amount of stairs. With the silent side step and a hand wave, Oz accepted the Sunnydale version of 'please come in.'

          Politely he refused Giles' offer of tea and followed the older man into his study, which was separated from his library with a pocket door. Taking a seat on one of the overstuffed lazy-boys he waited as Giles headed for his kitchen and returned with a cup of tea for himself.

          Taking a sip of tea, earl gray based on the smell, Giles calmly asked, "So Oz, what can I do for you today?" Oz leveled a pointed look at the Watcher and raised a single brow. "Ah, yes, the link. I'm afraid Wesley and I are still looking into that. While Wesley does say he has encountered something similar recently, every case is different and so we are finding it rather slow going."

          Oz sighed, and ran a hand through his hair, "I need this gone _soon_."

          Giles sat up straighter in his own chair and leaned forward, "Why has something happened?"

          He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, "I don't know." He admitted while feeling every ounce of calm shatter inside him. He'd admitted all of this to himself but like his past, it was different admitting it aloud. Doing so made it real. "I'm having trouble telling my emotions apart from hers. Sometimes I don't know whether what I'm feeling is what I'm feeling or if it's what Buffy's feeling."

          Giles feel backward in his chair, his tea only barely managing to not slip onto his lap. Heaving a heavy sigh, Giles mournfully put his cup on the side table and pulled a half empty bottle filled with amber liquid from his desk. "This calls for something stronger."

          Hesitantly, Oz accepted the tumbler that Giles handed him. He could smell the whiskey, it smelled rich and flavourful, but with his wolf and the confusion they were both feeling he didn't think drinking the alcohol was the best option for him. He watched as Giles quickly downed his drink and placed his glass next to his tea cup. "How long has this been?"

          Oz shook his head, "I don't know. I only realized the blur a couple days ago."

          "How come?"

          Oz sighed and looked deep into his glass. Unfortunately the answers he was seeking were not coming to him. He tossed the liquor back and relished this kind of burn he felt in his throat now. Turning the now empty glass in his hands he looked up to find Giles patiently watching him a concerned look on his somehow mostly wrinkle free face.

          Finally he shrugged and replied, "Graham gave me the shovel speech," Giles's eyebrows shot higher than Oz thought possible, "and based on Buffy it was appropriate." He left it there, not sure of anything else to say. Or that there was anything left for him to say.

          "And because of this link you don't know what's real." Giles summarized after several long minutes of silence. A silence that for the first time Oz found himself despising. Slowly Oz nodded. "Certainly troubling. Are those her feelings? Are they yours? Are you both manipulating each other's emotions? And even more, are they real?"

          Oz slowly nodded to each of Giles's observations, wondering much the same thing. Giles lapsed into silence again. A minute passed before he opened his mouth to ask something, but Oz cut him off. "If you're about to ask how that makes me feel, don't. I think it's been established that I don't know or trust my emotions right now."

          Giles closed his mouth nodded thoughtfully. Another minute passed before Giles opened his mouth to speak again. "How has this been affecting your wolf? I understand from the few discussions we've had on the matter, and more from Jordy, that the wolf is an instinct driven part of you. It would feel the emotional shift more acutely than even yourself."

          "It has." He answered, warring with himself to keep the pacing animal within him calm. He knew he shouldn't have had that drink, especially with this conversation that the chaos it was causing his already frenzied beast. "I only realized how bad it was when I changed during the full moon."

          Giles nodded again. Oz was amazed his glasses hadn't been cleaned once through their discussion. Perhaps the whiskey meant things were way beyond that. "What do you intend to do now?"

          Oz leveled a pointed look at him again. "Get rid of it."

          Giles waved his hand about, "Yes, yes, but until we can figure out how. Clearly things are becoming too fraught as they are. Perhaps some distance might be of aid."

          "It would."

          "I know Xander has been too busy as of late to manage to place for you, and the Merrick House is rather full with the Watcher's conference this month. I have several empty rooms here - why Xander gave them to me ... - anyways, you are welcome to one of them."

          Oz nodded before finally placing the empty glass on the side table. "Thank you, I think I will."

 

          Buffy wasn't too sure what exactly was going on between her and Oz, but having now admitted to Willow how she felt, she knew she needed to speak with her house guest. Arriving home late after having spent the day training with all the slayers she was startled by the silence. Yes, the house was always quiet unless she or Dawn were there, Oz was a naturally silent person, but the house had that empty silence about it.

          Wondering where Oz might be she shrugged off the uneasy feeling that was attempting to settle in her stomach and ventured into the kitchen. A note as stuck to the fridge door in Oz's odd mix of chicken scratch and neat writing. With a sinking feeling, Buffy pulled it from the door and read the four words on the torn corner of the newspaper from this morning.

          'Staying at Giles' now.'


	13. Chapter Thirteen

          Willow stood pacing her office trying to figure out what the hell was going wrong with their perfect plan. Okay, there was the obvious problem that Buffy was getting the dreams when that was supposed to be Oz. So Oz was clearly, and now certainly confirmed thanks to Wesley, suffering the emotional link. They'd wanted it the other way because of Oz's other half, Wesley had been the most adamant about that when they created the spell.

          She stopped as she reached the wall and leveled one of her patented glares at it. Nothing happened. Turning in a huff she walked the floor again.

          Four days had passed since Oz had moved from Buffy's place to Giles'. Buffy said she was fine with it, but Willow knew her friend well enough to know she was lying through her teeth. Then there was Dawn always complaining about how Buffy was moping around the house. Willow knew they needed to fix this problem if only to shut Dawn up.

          Oz wasn't leaving Giles' though, Wesley had realized that the day after Oz had moved in. He'd gone by to try and 'solve' the problem Oz was having and learned from Giles that it had gotten very bad on Oz's end and he needed distance. Watcher prescribed distance. Wesley had taken one look at the werewolf, his head buried under a pile of pillows and agreed. Of course that was also why he'd been so against Oz receiving the link.

          Willow had received a call from Wesley during the day, he'd been making the phone call in secret in the bathroom while Giles was brewing Oz some tea to try and calm the werewolf's wild nerves. Wesley had relayed what he'd found and later that night at a hastily called meeting of the match makers, as Faith had jokingly taken to calling them when she'd learned of their plan, Wesley had made it clear that the link was doing Oz more harm than good and needed to be removed.

          Everyone had been hesitant on that idea until Wesley told them about how Giles was thinking that, for Oz and everyone else's safety, he leave Fellowship until they could remove the link. Apparently Oz was losing control over his wolf. Reluctantly they had all agreed. The next day Wesley, carefully, produced the reversal for the link. The only problem that they now faced was that Giles didn't have all the ingredients they needed.

          Willow paused in her pacing to glance at her watch. The delivery of supplies should be arriving any minute now. When it did, Wesley and Giles would be able to reverse the spell on Oz. Buffy, they'd decided, would keep receiving the dreams, though Willow had casted a careful addition to that spell so that she'd be able to manage a full night's sleep.

          Of course this still left them without their goal. Yes, Buffy was falling in love with Oz, but there was nothing on his side. Willow herself had gone to visit her ex-boyfriend the day before, he'd locked himself in the room Giles had provided and in the brief glance she'd gotten of him, he didn't look good. She'd felt bad for what she had done to him, but she still knew that what they were doing was for the best. And the spell was designed to amplify already existing feelings so he must have felt something for it to work on his side.

          Giles had told her that because of the link Oz didn't even trust himself. She'd known, like Wesley, that giving Oz the link would be havoc with his wolf. But that? She had not foreseen that. So was it possible the Oz did have feelings for Buffy and just not realized it through her feelings?

          Willow sighed and looked at her watch again. Still wouldn't be here yet. She took a deep, calming breath and reminded herself that a watched pot never boils. Maybe she should be filling her time trying to come up with another solution to the problem of getting Buffy and Oz together.

          If she could just get them in the same room and talking. Well they'd had months of that. Something more drastic, and they'd have to talk about their feelings. For each other.

          Anxious, Willow began tapping a pen against the side of her hand as she continued her pacing, trying to come up with another plan. Could they try giving Oz the dreams he was supposed to receive in the first place? Dawn had suggested that the other night, and like Sam, Willow quickly tossed it aside. Oz, and Giles, would be on alert for any more magic like that.

          She was going in circles, literally with her pacing, and figuratively with her planning. She kept coming back to Dawn's stupid suggestion of locking them in a closet. Everyone had rejected that idea before Dawn had even finished saying the last word. But each time her brain circled back to it, Willow found it more and more appealing. Maybe not a closet, but if they were to be locked in a room and forced to discuss their feelings. Maybe with a spell on the door so the only way they could get out was by admitting them.

          There was a definite, and slightly disturbing, appeal to it.

          She'd bring it up with the others, see what they thought. They'd definitely have to wait a bit for Oz to calm down after everything they had accidentally done to him. But Willow was seeing merit. Maybe a little sign taped to the door explaining how to open it. It couldn't be hand written, they'd recognize the writing and then Willow would be dead. She preferred to stay alive, thank you.

 

          Buffy hadn't seen Oz in over a month. She tried desperately to not let anyone know how much it was frustrating her. She didn't think she was doing too well. Even stupid Graham with his lack of coping skills - how did he ever survive in the military with the number of mental breakdowns he seemed to be having? - had noticed she was acting weird.

          She needed to talk to Oz. Find out what she had done to drive him away. Find out how she could fix it. If she could fix it. And of course, she knew she needed to tell him about how she felt. Maybe that was why she was taking his seeming disappearance so hard.

          Sure, he hadn't _actually_ disappeared or anything. Everyone knew he was now living at Giles' place, but since he'd moved in with the head of Fellowship, he had barely been seen. And certainly not outside of Giles' sprawling Victorian home. Giles just kept telling everyone that came to see him that Oz was ill. Severely ill, on the one occasion Buffy tried to visit him. But word was that Oz had recently been seen around town, so all that was left was for her to find him and talk to him.

          It took her a while but eventually Willow pointed her to one of the conference rooms in the office building. Apparently Oz needed privacy for some phone call he received while they'd been talking. Shrugging, Buffy headed to the office.

          She knocked before entering and was surprised to see that Oz really did look like he'd been ill for some time. His skin was paler and he had dark bags under his eyes. He also appeared thinner, like he'd lost weight rather than simply worn loose clothes today. He'd also forgotten to shave.

          He looked up from where he sat at the conference table, his head resting on his hands, something frantic about his expression. As the door closed behind her he cursed and one of his hands came down hard on the table, the thud resounding painfully throughout the room.

          "The door won't open again." He muttered nearly growling.

          "What?" She asked surprised as she turned back to the door and tried the handle. It didn't budge. "Can't you call for help?" She asked already pulling her phone out of her pocket.

          "Something's jamming the signal." He answered, refusing to look at her.

          It was true, she had no signal on her phone. Begrudgingly she returned it to her pocket. Looking around the room she saw a piece of paper taped to the wall beside the door. She had to read it about five times before she pulled it off the wall and presented it to Oz.

          "Did you see this?" She asked horrified. He finally looked at her again, before nodding silently. "Is this for real?" His shoulders raised in a shrug. "This cannot be serious!" She shouted, the paper with the simple typed words 'reveal your true heart and the door will open' fluttering to the ground as she began desperately trying the door handle.

          She could feel Oz watching her as the minutes ticked by and she refused to stop twisting, pulling, yanking, and pounding on the door. Unfortunately because of the strength of slayers and despite the light magic now in the soil, demons were still known to appear in Fellowship so all the doors, while looking like wood, were made with a sheet of steel inside them. All glass was also incredibly strong, able to withstand extreme air pressure and bullets, and importantly, demons and slayers. Buffy cursed Xander as she continued struggling, in what she was coming to admit was a test of futility.

          Finally giving up, she turned to her companion ruefully. Hands on her hips and leveled a slayer glare at him. Oz simply raised a brow at her, silently saying 'This is not my fault so don't start with me.'

          She groaned and collapsed into one of the chairs next to him at the table. "So I guess we need to talk." She finally whined after a couple seconds of silence. And why was the prospect so terrifying when it was the reason she'd gone looking for him?

          Oz stayed silent. He didn't even offer one of his silent answers in response to the obviousness of Buffy's statement. This was going to be harder than she thought.

          "Okay, I'll start I guess." She muttered begrudgingly, "Why'd you move to Giles' place? It can't be just because you had the flu."

          Oz's shoulder's sagged and his head fell down to the table top. He still didn't offer up a response. Frustrated, Buffy crossed her arms across her chest and sat back ready to wait for him to speak. She wasn't picky about which way he chose.

          A surreptitious glance at the clock a while later revealed that an entire half hour had passed with her waiting for some kind of answer. A part of her wondered if her companion had even fallen asleep in that time. Carefully, and perhaps stupidly, she poked him in the shoulder. It moved and she was suddenly met with a green eyed glare from an angry werewolf.

          Quickly pulling her finger back, she offered up a weak, "Just checking if you were awake."

          He rolled his eyes and uncurled from around the edge of the table to sit back in the chair. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Buffy suddenly got one of those foreboding feelings . "What do you know about Wesley's being here?"

          Yup, definitely a bad feeling. "The Watcher's conference."

          Oz had begun shaking his head before she'd even finished. "Somehow I got hit with a spell or something." He said this very hesitantly and Buffy got the distinct feeling that while it was the truth it wasn't the whole truth. "It created this ... emotional link between the two of us."

          Buffy's look of confused apprehension fell into terrified shock as she listened to Oz finish speaking. "So you could feel my emotions?" She managed to squeak out.

          Slowly he nodded. Now Buffy collapsed onto the table, mortified. After a few minutes she turned her head to look at Oz over her arms, face still mostly hidden, "So you know ... everything?"

          He shrugged, clearly not liking this conversation either. "I don't know about _everything_ , but then I don't know what everything is."

          She groaned again. "This is not the time for philosophical discussion, Oz." She cursed at him. "I'm asking if you know ... of God, this is embarrassing!" She whined and retreated to hiding her red face in her arms. Muffled against the table she admitted, "I came here looking to talk to you, and now that we have to talk I don't want to."

          "I don't like this either." He admitted. "And I moved to Giles' because I didn't know _what_ I was feeling anymore. Was it me? Was it you? I didn't trust myself."

          Slowly she looked up at him, he looked lost and angry at the same time. It was an odd thing to see on a man who was always in such control of himself. "It must have been hell for you because of the wolf."

          When he next looked at her, his eyes seemed to flash yellow. "I'd never felt like that before, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone."

          "I believe you." She told him carefully, "You're always so careful about everything because of the wolf and even before that. I admire that about you, Oz."

          He was calm again, his outburst hidden, and he levelled a calmly measured gaze in her direction. She got what he was saying load and clear.

          "Alright, so I more than admire you." She admitted hotly, her face burning with embarrassment again. "Am I really going to need to say it?"

          He stayed silent, but his head tilted towards the fallen sign from the door. She glared at the offending sheet of paper. "Alright, fine. I like you Oz, and not just as a friend. God I feel like I'm sixteen and we're back in high school!" She thought she heard Oz laugh, but when she looked at him, his face was as calm as ever. Then a silly idea struck her, and she began twisting her hair around a finger, and pretended to be chewing some gum. Laying the Valley Girl on, she finished "I really like you, and want to go steady."

          She couldn't help herself and burst out laughing right after. It took a minute but then she heard Oz join in. It took several minutes for them to regain their breath and composer.

          Silence descended over the room and Buffy was suddenly uncomfortable. She was really scared he was going to reject her offer. Finally he spoke, "My first memory was watching my grandparents die. It had been a boating accident and I was with them. I don't know how I survived, or why. My mom was always fragile and that didn't help. A few years later, she left. I have trust issues that predate being a werewolf and am, according to three Tibetan monks, and a bartender in Bali, emotionally stunted."

          Buffy waited for the other shoe to drop as she sat in shock listening to Oz talk about his grandparents. He hadn't said no, but he also hadn't said yes. And despite everything he'd said, that was what she was focused on, because she had laid something of herself out for him.

          Silence followed his statement. Quickly she filled it, "My first real boyfriend was a vampire that I caused to loss his soul. I sent him to Hell, _literally_. To the _place of the damned_. My next serious boyfriend was experimented on by the military and is living across the street from me. I'm also the godmother of his youngest child. Then there was Spike. I don't really know what else to say. It was probably stupid of me, but we understood each other, it was messy but he helped me survive when I didn't think I could. I loved all of them, but they are my past."

          "I tried to kill my ex-girlfriend's new girlfriend when we broke up. I turn into an animal for three days each month, unless I keep control of myself. And as for that ex-girlfriend, I think she put the spell on the door."

          "God damn, Willow!" Buffy cursed jumping to her feet. A second later she fell back into the chair. "She does know I like you, even gave me permission to date you. And yes, I know that sounds strange, but there's a girlfriend code to consider."

          He shook his head, a silent smile on his face that Buffy knew was hiding a laugh. "Graham sent me to spy on you and Dawn."

          "I knew he'd done something dirty." She angrily huffed wondering what she could do to him in return.

          "He's emotionally stunted." Oz added. She gave him a questioning look and he shrugged, explaining, "He blew up an island because he didn't know how to handle finding out he had two younger sisters. Of course it could have been because he knew what you two were like, but there is a definite need for long therapy sessions there."

          She had to concede that fact, about the therapy. "I'm great! Dawn, though, she could use some getting used to." He gave her another of those silent smiles that hid a laugh. She glared in response because she knew he was laughing at her definition of herself. Suddenly nervous again, she quietly asked, "So about us ...?"

          He hung his head, body curled over his knees. "I don't know how I feel." Buffy felt her heart plummet. "But, you are a great person. I like how easy things are." Oz lapsed into silence again, and Buffy's heart beat faster than she knew it could. "I do like you, and we can try." She tried to hide how her heart nearly exploded, but the smile that broke out on her face was impossible to hide. "Like I said, I don't know how I feel right now, I'm still trying to sort everything out."

          Still smiling, Buffy leaned over and gave the emotionally stunted werewolf with trust issues a joyous hug and kiss on the cheek. Settling back into her chair next to him, she concluded, "We can wait to go out until you're ready. I don't want to rush you or make things worse."

          "What is it that they say at weddings?"

          "What part?"

          "Love is patient."

          Buffy smiled, "It's true."

          "It is."

 

          Neither heard their match makers 'aww' behind the door or saw their congratulatory high fives. But when Oz tried to open the door an hour later, desperately needing to pee, it opened without issue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second last chapter, all the remains is the epilogue. And yes, I was kind of getting dejected with how hard writing this was becoming, I know that I shows in the quality of the story as of late.


	14. Chapter Fourteen - Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a long time coming, a really long time since I started writing this back in 2011 on Twisting the Hellmouth, but finally I have finished. Sorry about the long wait and thanks for sticking in there.

### Five Years later

          Graham watched his friends and sisters argue and wrestle with each other over the food laid out on the three tables in the kitchen. He waited patiently, bouncing his year old nephew on his knee and giving the boy a dejected look. Could people really be that stupid that they didn't know how to wait? They hadn't even bothered to first get food for the kids, and since he was stuck currently watching them, and patiently waiting, he figured it would be his job. Was it too late to mention that he didn't even like kids?

          Giving Gabriel another dejected look, he placed the toddler on the floor with his sister, the youngest of Sam's brood - which much to her relief had not grown since her threat to Riley - and Faith's eight month old daughter. And wasn't little Jesse Harris's story already a disturbing one. Xander and Faith had gotten married a month after Buffy and Oz four years earlier. A week into the marriage they decided it wouldn't work and got divorced. Like they always did, they quickly went back to sort-of dating, mostly fighting with lots of sex. Last year, Faith learned she was pregnant. So being the gentleman, Xander proposed and they got married. That marriage lasted until Faith's last trimester when Xander got so frustrated with her pregnancy cravings and complaining that they again got divorced. The day after the divorce was finalized, Faith gave birth. Graham's pretty sure they're dating again, but based on the argument he heard not ten minutes ago, he wasn't sure. Dating or not, they always lived together.

          "Uncle Graham!" Tabitha screeched racing into Buffy's living room, Dean right behind her. "Mommy and Aunt Buffy want to know why you aren't eating."

          Leaning back so his head rested on the seat cushions of the couch he sat against, he sighed, "I'm waiting for the kitchen to empty a bit."

          "Oh." Tabitha muttered, looking towards the overcrowded dining room, her brow creased and then she raced off, likely to relay his answer.

          Dean didn't follow and instead sat down on the floor next to him. Graham was just about to ask the six year old what was bothering him, when he noticed Cassie was hanging onto the edge of the coffee table. Halfway through a curse that he realized that he really shouldn't use, he quickly reached over and pulled the squealing three year old into his lap, tickling her.

          He caught a flash in the corner of his eye and looked over to find the four month pregnant Kennedy holding a camera. "That's cute, are she and Luke getting along?"

          He glared at the slayer, "Does Riley know you're trying to set my niece and his youngest son up?" He already knew that Riley had caught her trying it once and had given her grief. He also knew Sam was helping Kennedy already plan the wedding.

          "No, but Faith supports the plan."

          "Does Faith know you're also trying to set Jesse and Gabriel up?" He countered horrified at the idea of both his niece and nephew being used like dolls in some scheme at romance before they were even five.

          Kennedy glared at him, a hand on her swollen abdomen and turned on her heel back towards the kitchen. Willow emerged a couple minutes later. Graham had Cassie still in his lap while he was trying to corral the squirming Gabriel and Jesse away from the wrestling Finn brothers. She gave him a look of pity and picked Jesse up. "High chairs and kids table are ready for them."

          "Great, more help please." He asked as he realized he had no hope of standing with his niece crawling on his outstretched legs.

          Willow laughed at him, and took Cassie's hand, carefully helping her off him and leading her towards the kitchen. Graham was left with the boys. Picking up Gabriel, he rose to his feet and with one hand managed to pull Dean off his brother by the back of his shirt. With a stern voice he commanded they head for the kitchen to eat. Once he had the boys settled at the table with their sister and Cassie he placed Gabriel in the remaining empty high chair.

          Dawn came up behind him, dragging Connor along by his wrist and told him that a full plate was at his spot. He watched his sister, the former Key, drag the sputtering miracle human child of two vampires after her to their spots at the table. He closed his eyes and sighed. Dawn was still, after nearly five years of getting negative answers, trying to get Connor to go on a date with her. He was grateful the other boy was saying no, but then Connor thought it would be weird to go out with his dad's ex-girlfriend's younger sister. Dawn simply always countered his argument that he'd gotten the woman who had changed his diapers the year before pregnant when she'd had some creepy 'will I-won't I date him' thing going with his dad. Of course Dawn's hope probably lay with the fact that while Connor refused her advance, he was also interested in her.

          Opening his eyes, he gave Gabriel a look of pity and headed for his spot. They had these dinners once a month, rotating who hosted each time. Graham had hoped to back out like he tended to, but it was his sister and he had been told too many times ago that he wasn't allowed. Unless it was one of his siblings hosting, or Sam since she was married to Riley and he was an honorary brother, he avoided these meals. Except Giles, sometimes he showed up when Giles hosted because his dining room actually fit everyone without issue.

          They had two tables set up in the cramped dining room, in addition to the little plastic one on a plastic drop cloth for the kids. One table had Giles, Buffy, Oz, Willow, Kennedy, Xander, Faith, and Sam. He sat at the other with Riley, Connor, Dawn, Vi, Andrew, and Jordy.

          He tried to ignore the conversation at the other table about kids and other happy parenthood stuff. He still didn't like kids. Unfortunately the conversation at his table wasn't much better than having to listen to Kennedy talk about how she'd managed to convince her brother to donate his sperm to he could fertilize one of Willow's eggs so Kennedy could carry it. Willow having categorically refused to give birth, and only agreeing to having kids if Kennedy carried them. He also didn't need to hear just how much sperm had been provided.

          Instead he was stuck listening to Dawn grilling Vi for details on the redheaded slayer's relationship with Jordy, who was also having supposedly no-strings-attached sex with Andrew. Vi knew about Jordy and Andrew, she claimed she was simply sharing her bisexual boyfriend with her gay best friend. The blonde liked to joke that that was the closest he'd ever gotten to sex with a woman, and Graham really didn't need to know the three of them shared a bed.

          Luckily neither Riley or Connor wanted to be part of that conversation either, so they contented themselves to talk about the latest sports scores, the Hellmouth in Cleveland, and how the weather in LA was. Weather in LA being the actual weather and Spike's odd way of providing Fellowship with details on the comings and goings of the Hyperion gang.

          Eventually dinner was over, and being a good older brother he cleared the tables. Not that he had much choice since everyone else disappeared into the living room while he'd been in the bathroom. He's also gotten a headache during the meal that likely had everything to do with the conversations he wanted no part of but still heard despite his best efforts.

          Halfway through washing the dishes, he heard the tell tale sounds of sleepy children being put to bed upstairs. Paying it no mind, he continued scrubbing baked on lasagna off a plate. What a great time for his sister's dishwasher to breakdown.

          "Yes, but apparently Harmony's single." He suddenly heard Dawn say from the stairs.

          "Really, you want to set your brother up with Harmony?" Sam countered sounding incredulous.

          Horrified, he dropped the plate in the sink. What the hell was he hearing? And there was no way in _Hell_ that that was happening. Footsteps drew closer to the kitchen and he panicked. Seeing the broom closet, and made a break for it, and hid his pain at having a mop spear him in the shoulder as the door closed just in time.

          "Come on, it worked so well last time." Dawn continued with whatever they were discussing.

          "But Harmony?" Willow added.

          "She's single, and according to Spike's report-"

          "Weather forecast." Willow interjected.

          "Whatever. According to Spike she's single and a lot different than she had been in Sunnydale." Dawn finished. "And they'd be cute together."

          "That's your answer for almost anything." Sam huffed leaning against the kitchen island.

          "Maybe we could call Wesley." Willow offered. "He was great help last time."

          "True." Sam supplied.

          "Just no mind links this time." Dawn quickly added, as Graham watched through the bare crack he'd left in the door as Willow pulled out her cell phone.

          "I think we all learned our lesson there." Sam said seriously.

          The trio moved out of the kitchen towards the backyard, and slowly Graham emerged from his hiding place. What the hell were they talking about? He understood with terrifying detail that they were thinking about setting him up with the glitter and unicorn obsessed Harmony Kendall - over his dead and possibly cremated body, thank you - but what was everything else?

          Returning to the sink, he looked out the window and saw them crowded around each other, as Willow talked into her phone, Sam and Dawn alternating between pulling the phone to them to speak with Wesley. Glancing down at the soap filled sink and the pile of dishes still beside it, he wondered if he should stop hiding the fact that he'd been in a long-distance relationship with Anne Steele for over three years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to end by sharing the (in my opinion) hilarious description of plot points I had written of what I wanted to touch on in the epilogue. Everything got discussed, yeah, but all the same, here it is:
> 
> Epilogue Points  
> Buffy and Oz have two kids, a three year old girl and one year old boy. Faith and Xander got married, got divorced, got pregnant, got married, got divorced, had a baby girl, and are dating again. Kennedy wants to see Buffy's daughter marry one of Sam's boys, and Faith's daughter with either Buffy's son or the other of Sam's boys. Jordy (who is bi) and Vi are dating, while there is an understanding and certain amount of sharing with Andrew. Dawn's trying to get Connor to ask her out (he thinks dating his dad's ex-girlfriend's younger sister is weird, Dawn counters that he got his dad's creepy-pseudo potential girlfriend who changed his diapers as a baby a year earlier, pregnant). Sam is relieved Riley has not gotten her pregnant again. Willow, Dawn, and Sam want to find Graham a girlfriend, they are thinking of getting Wesley to help. Spike's odd LA news/weather forecast says Harmony is single. Graham is terrified.


End file.
